SOWING, 

GROWTH 

and  REAPING. 


BV  4915  .E42  1886 

Egbert,  J.  P. 
Some  lessons  from  the 
parable  of  the  sower 


^ 


In  preparing   for  the  pulpit  the   "  lessons," 
now     puulished     in     *'  Sowing,    Growth,    and 
Reaping,"  free  use   was   made    of  every   help 
available.     By  a  mistake,    the    paragraph   ac- 
knowledging these  helps  was  omitted  from  the 
preface.     It  would  be  impossible  to  tell  the  ori- 
gin of  every  suggestion,  or  even  expression,  and 
it  would  have   greatly  encumbered    the    pages 
with  notes,  to  have  referred  to  all  the  sources  of 
information  and  suggestion.     This  would  have 
been  especially  difficult   in  this  case,  as  publi- 
cation was  not  thought  of  when  these  subjects 
were    prepared    for    pulpit   treatment.     Many 
books,  open  to  every  student  of  Holy  Writ  were 
consulted,   some   which   have  become    almost 
necessary  to  a  study  of  the   Bible.     The  ex- 
positions of  the    Parables  by  Trench,    Arnot, 
Bruce,   Goebel    and   others,    the   various  com- 
mentaries upon  the   Gospels,  and   the  lives  of 
our  Lord   by  Andrews,  .^sheim,  Weiss,   and 
others,  are  of  inestimable  vatue  in  searching  for 
the  ''  mind  of  the  Spirit."      The  chief  object 
in  publishing  the  book  was  to  help  our  own 
people  in  their  spiritual  life,  and  to  add  a  little 
to  the  usefulness  of  Calvary  Church. 


SONIE;     LE^SSONS 


FROM    THE 


Parable  of  The  Sower 


THE 


Parable  of  Growth 


AND    THE 


Law  of  The  Harvest 


iBy  cr.  I'-   e;g-:bei?,t. 


BUFFALO 
U  L  B  R  I'C  H    &    K  I  N  G  S  L  E  Y 

1886 


Copyright,    1886, 
By  J.   P.  Egbert, 


PREFACE 


A  pastor  often  feels  with  pain  the 
weakness  of  his  work,  and  seeks  to  find 
some  means  to  increase  its  value. 

It  is  with  this  desire  to  strengthen  a 
consciously  defective  ministry  that  these 
studies  of  ''the  Word  of  the  Kingdom" 
have  been  prepared. 

First  delivered  as  sermons  in  Calvary 
Church,  they  were  then  written  out  from 
the  stenographer's  notes,  and  are  published 
as  nearly  as  possible  as  they  were  delivered. 

The  pleasure  of  their  preparation  has 
been  increased  by  the  thought  that  perhaps 


PREFACE. 

they  may  carry  true  seed  to  some  "  good 
and  honest "  heart,  or  help  the  growth 
to  fuller  harvest  of  seed  already  sown. 
Should  this  be  accomplished,  it  may  justify 
the  addition  of  one  more  to  the  many 
books  that  ask  for  our  attention.  If  it 
find  no  ministry  of  helpfulness,  it  will  at 
least  do  no  harm  to  those  who  take  the 
time  to  read  it. 

As  we  are  all  stewards  of  the  truth,  do 
not  forget  to  ask  for  the  blessing  of  the 
God  of  all  truth  upon  whatever  in  this 
little  book  is  according  to  His  Word. 

Study  of  Calvary  Church. 

Mav,  1886, 


CONTENTS 


PAGE. 

Teaching  by  Parables i 

The  Parable  of  the  Sower 37 

The  First  Class,   "  By  the  Wayside  " 49 

The  Second  Class,  "  On  the  Rock  " 65 

The  Third  Class,   "  Among  Thorns  " 83 

The  Fourth  Class,  "  In  Good  Ground  " 106 

"Take  Heed  How  Ye  Hear" 123 

Parable  of  Growth 134 

The  Law  of  the  Harvest 174 


" the  Holy  Scriptures,  which  are  able  to  make  thee 

wise  unto  salvation."  .  — //  Tim.,  3: 15. 


Ask  not  for  a  sign  from  Heaven, 

In  the  gospel  of  thy  Saviour,  life  as  well  as  light,  is  given. 
Ever  looking  unto  Jesus,  all  his  glory  thou  shalt  see, 
From  thy  heart  the  veil  be  taken,  and  the  Word  be  clear  to 
thee."  —£>e  IVette. 


"Voice  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  making  known 
Man  to  himself,  a  witness  swift  and  sure, 
Warning,  approving,  true  and  wise  and  pure. 
Counsel  and  guidance  that  misleadeth  none! 
By  thee  the  mystery  of  life  is  read; 
The  picture-writing  of  the  world's  gray  seers, 
The  myths  and  parables  of  the  primal  years, 
Whose  letter  kills,  by  thee  interpreted 
Take  healthful  meanings  fitted  to  our  needs, 
And  in  the  soul's  vernacular,  express 
The  common  law  of  simple  righteousness." 

— /.    G.    Whittier. 


TEACHING  BY  PARABLES. 

*'  Why  speakest  thou  to  tJievi  in  para- 
bles r 

This  question  of  the  disciples  suggests 
a  line  of  thought  which  may  be  profitable 
to  us  as  an  introduction  to  the  parables  of 
our  Lord,  especially  to  the  Parable  of 
the  Sower. 

The  great  Teacher  did  not  use  parables 
for  their  beauty,  nor  chiefly  for  their  power 
as  illustrations.  They  are  rather  hints  of 
something  deeper  ;  surface  indications  of 
richer  ore  beneath,  for  which  we  must 
dig  watchfully  and  thoroughly.  And  we 
may  be  sure  that  parables  meant  more 
to  Christ  than  they  do  to  us.  As  the 
botanist  walking  through  the  forest  sees  a 
variety  and  wealth  of  which  the  woodman 
never  dreams ;  or  as  the  anthropologist, 
looking  at  the  common  customs  of  men, 
sees  a  far-reaching  history  with  a  wealth  of 


2  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

meaning  that  is  never  more  than  a  surface 
suggestion  to  the  mass  of  men ;  so  the 
Christ,  "  by  whom  all  things  consist,"  sees 
nature's  secrets  In  all  their  infinite  depth 
of  meaning. 

Where  we  see  the  conflicts  that  keep 
nature's  surface  in  agitation.  He  sees  the 
perfect  concord  reigning  deep  within. 
Behind  the  Infinite  variety  that  puzzles 
us,  and  the  struggle  of  forces  that  bewilders 
us.  He  reads  the  eternal  purpose  of  God 
blending  all  into  the  most  perfect  harmony. 
His  pure  eyes  see  a  wealth  to  which  our 
eyes  are  blind,  and  His  mighty  hand  draws 
it  forth  for  the  world's  instruction.  Divine 
Himself,  He  is  conscious  of  the  divine 
knowledge  and  beauty  written  in  with 
every  scroll  of  nature.  So  that  where  all 
looks  dark  and  deadly  to  us,  He  sees  a 
divine  truth,  the  truth  of  Jehovah's  certain 
purpose,  relieving  with  Its  own  glory  all 
the  seeming  defects  and  contradictions  of 
earth.  It  adds  to  the  value  as  well  as  to 
the  beauty  of  the  gospel  message,  that  the 
Christ  Teacher  wove  It  into    such    close 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  ^ 

relations  with  all  the  works  of  God,  among 
which  we  must  delve  for  our  daily  life. 

The  Teacher  who  knew  what  was  in  man, 
knew  also  what  was  in  nature,  and  taught 
us  how  to  take  more  than  a  mere  glance 
at  the  vast  gallery   of    truth  and  beauty 
through  which  we  are  passing.    He  taught 
us  to  look  for  Jehovah's  thought  in  every 
problem  of  nature,  and  to  listen  for  the 
Father's  voice  of  love  and  wisdom  in  every 
incident  of  life.     He  would  have  us  search 
every   nook   of  earthly  life   for   the  foot- 
prints of  divine  purpose,  for  the  incarna- 
tion of  divine  thought,  for  the  illustration 
of  divine  truth.     To  Him  all  things  in  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  in  the  fields,  the  sea 
and  the  air,  were  filled  with  the  thoughts 
of  the  eternal   Mind,  and  He  interpreted 
them  into  current  language  for  circulation 
through    all    the    years    of    human    life. 
These  truths  He  would  force  into  the  con- 
sciousness of  men,  and  by  them  arouse  us 
to  an  earnest  effort  to  reach  His  own  high 
standard  for  us. 

On   the  head,   the   arm,   the   foot,  you 


4  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

touch  the  throbbing  pulse,  and  think  of 
the  heart  that  beats  its  Hfe-strokes  into 
every  part  of  the  body.  As  the  divine 
Teacher  touches  the  pulses  of  truth,  beat- 
ing their  mysterious  harmonies  everywhere 
throughout  all  life,  He  points  our  minds  to 
the  great  Unity,  who,  like  an  eternal 
heart,  sends  a  mighty  intimation  of  His 
plan  and  presence  throbbing  through  all 
the  veins  of  nature.  Thus  He  would  lead 
us  to  search  beyond  the  discord  for  the 
eternal  harmony  toward  which  He  is  lead- 
ing us. 

You  may  thus  at  last  learn  that 

"All  nature  is  but  art  unknown  to  thee  ; 
All  chance,  direction  which  thou  canst  not  see  ; 
All  discord,  harmony  not  understood  ; 
All  partial  evil,  universal  good." — Pope. 

Without  doubt,  he  is  the  richest  heir  of 
God  who  has  most  familiarity  with  the 
divine  meanings  of  nature ;  and  that 
lover  of  nature  is  truest  and  happiest  who 
can  discern  in  her  teachings  the  truths  of 
God's  implanting.  As  such  a  student 
looks    on    nature's  problems,  he  is  often 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  5 

forced  to  ask  the  question  of  the  angel  in 
Milton  :— 

"What  if  earth 
Be  but  the  shadow  of  Heaven  and  things  therein, 
Each  to  other  like  more  than  on  earth  is  thought  ? " 

Certainly  the  Master  used  the  earthly 
to  teach  us  of  things  heavenly.  For  how- 
ever others  may  read  nature,  Christ  teaches 
that  this  world  is  a  divine  thought,  God's 
world  ;  and  that  men  are  the  highest  part 
of  that  thought,  a  copy  of  the  Divine 
Thinker;  and  that  many  of  the  mysteries 
that  fall  like  shadows  across  the  world  are 
but  intimations  of  Jehovah's  presence. 
Earth's  treasures  of  truth  are  being  dis- 
covered more  and  more  richly  every  year 
by  this  eager,  busy  age,  and  science  has 
given  us  many  keys  that  unlock  her  secrets, 
yet  her  meaning  is  continually  misinter- 
preted and  her  instructions  misapplied. 
As  we  rejoice  over  earth's  wealth  and 
beauty,  we  do  not  always  realize  how  true 
it  is  that 

'*  The  earth  is  crammed  with  Heaven, 
And  every  bush  afire  with  God." 


b  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

Men  are  constantly  saying  the  world  is 
full  of  prophecies  and  man  is  full  of  hopes, 
but  where  is  the  promise  of  their  fulfill- 
ment? The  Word,  the  supreme  Thought 
incarnate,  comes  to  lighten  man's  dark- 
ness, to  lift  the  world's  hopes  still  higher 
by  the  divine  assurance,  to  point  man's 
limited,  hindered,  heavy-laden  life  to  the 
rest  of  perfection,  the  unhindered  growth 
of  eternal  life.  Though  all  the  world 
groaneth  and  travaileth  until  now,  the 
time  of  rest  comes  rapidly,  when  all  the 
hidden  things  of  the  universe  will  reveal 
their  meaning.  When  we  shall  live  amid 
great  thoughts  and  holy  purposes,  amid 
our  highest  hopes  fulfilled,  and  higher 
hopes  begotten.  When  the  natural  and 
the  spiritual  shall  build  each  other  into 
symmetry,  and  by  Christ's  teaching  shall 
reveal  each  other  to  the  instruction  and 
the  comfort  of  all  who  listen  to  His 
voice. 

The  Master  ever  interprets  nature  as 
speaking  the  truth  of  God.  The  moun- 
tain points  to  the  sure  refuge  in  Jehovah's 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  7 

strength  and  protection,  the  rock  ilhis- 
trates  His  abiding  salvation.  The  Hly  in 
its  beauty,  and  the  birds  in  the  free  air 
above,  point  to  God's  providing  care.  The 
golden  grain  drops  into  the  fertile  earth 
and  springs  up  to  a  more  abundant  life, 
and  the  seeds  of  divine  truth  fall  into  the 
''good  and  honest "  heart  only  to  spring 
up  into  the  abundance  of  eternal  life. 

''Goto  the  earth,"  says  Job,  "and  it 
shall  teach  thee,"  and  the  Psalmist  contin- 
ues the  song,  "  for  the  earth  is  the  Lord's 
and  the  fulness  thereof."  (Ps.  24:  i.)  "O 
Lord,  how  manifold  are  Thy  works !  in 
wisdom  hast  Thou  made  them  all  :  the 
earth  is  full  of  Thy  riches."  (Ps.  104:  24.) 
God  has  summoned  all  the  resources  of 
the  whole  realm  of  nature  to  aid  in  the 
upbuilding  of  man  ;  and  from  the  open 
pages  of  this  visible  universe  Christ  has 
taught  us  to  read  the  truths  of  the  unseen 
and  eternal  world.  He  so  minMed  the 
visible  world  about  Him  with  the  unseen 
world  of  His  promise  as  to  make  the 
unseen   things    more  real   by   association 


8  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

with  things  we  knew.  He  read  such 
divine  truth  from  the  suggestions  of  nature, 
and  made  the  present  mean  so  much  by 
its  relations  with  the  eternal  future ;  so 
unveiled  that  future  by  showing  the  real 
meaning  of  the  present,  and  so  rifted  the 
cloud  that  separated  them,  as  to  make 
them  forever  stand  forth  as  to-day  and 
to-morrow  of  the  same  immortal  life.  Thus 
teaching  us  that  the  present  is  the  parable 
of  the  unbounded  future,  and  only  as  we 
rightly  read  the  days  that  are,  can  we 
understand  the  years  that  shall  be. 

How  patiently  Christ  battled  with  the 
world's  darkness,  shining  like  the  rising 
sun  against  the  world's  clouds  and  fogs  of 
sin  and  error,  striving  to  make  Heaven's 
glorious  light  scatter  every  human  dark- 
ness. Earnestly,  longingly,  did  He  labor 
to  fill  men's  minds  with  thoughts  of  God, 
and  put  into  their  souls  His  own  high  aim 
of  life.  The  Parable  of  the  Sower  sug- 
gests the  manner  in  which  the  world 
receives  His  earnest  teaching. 

The  disciples  appear  to  have  been  sur- 


^TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  9 

prised  by  this  parable.  Not  so  much  that 
He  spake  in  parables,  but  that  He  used 
parables  at  this  time  and  to  this  people. 
They  are  not  very  sure  that  they  under- 
stand His  meaning  in  the  parable  just 
uttered ;  but  if  they  do,  why  does  this 
Teacher,  so  earnest  and  so  wise,  speak 
such  a  parable  to  such  an  audience  ?  It 
is  not  an  illustration  of  God's  love  and 
mercy.  It  is  not  an  exhibition  of  Christ's 
divine  mission  to  our  fallen  race.  As  one 
has  said,  "  He  preached  not  to  the  peo- 
ple, but  at  them,  or  over  their  heads."  No 
comforting  truth  of  revelation,  but  a  dis- 
couraging, heart-searching  analysis  of  the 
characters  of  His  hearers.  It  was  not 
a  gospel  message,  but  an  uncomfortable, 
depressing  statement  of  how  the  gospel 
would  be  received. 

That  listening  assembly  was  made  up 
of  a  few  who  believed,  and  a  multitude 
who  were  either  indifferent,  save  from 
mere  curiosity,  or  were  prejudiced  against 
Him.  some  even  hatingf  Him  with  a  read- 
iness  to  kill  Him.     Why  did    not   Christ 


lO  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

use  this  opportunity  for  a  parable  illus- 
trating the  grandeur  of  His  mission,  or 
the  infinite  o^reatness  of  His  Father's  love  ? 
How  appropriate  the  parable  of  the  ''  Prod- 
igal Son,"  or  the  ''  Lost  Sheep,''  or  the 
"  Pearl  of  Great  Price."  Instead  of  any 
vindication  of  Himself,  or  any  propitia- 
tion of  His  hearers.  He  speaks  to  them  a 
parable  that,  if  understood,  will  discourage 
many,  and  rouse  more  to  wrath  that  may 
seek  to  compass  His  own  destruction. 
Why  lose  this  fine  opportunity  for  a  ser- 
mon on  the  great  truths  of  God's  heavenly 
kingdom,  or  an  earnest  presentation  of 
the  Father's  infinite  love  and  mercy  ?  How 
little  we  see  of  thino^s  that  are  clear  to  the 
Master's  vision  ! 

The  disciples  might  easily  have  been 
deceived,  as  we  often  are,  into  thinking 
that  the  multitude  would  press  into  the 
heavenly  kingdom  if  only  the  gospel  were 
appropriately  preached  unto  them.  These 
eager  followers,  who  yet  judge  by  appear- 
ances, dread  to  hear  a  word  that  might 
drive  away  the  large  audiences,  or  check 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  II 

their  enthusiasm.  But  Christ  preached 
not  merely  to  the  senses.  That  audi- 
ence was  much  better  understood  by  Christ 
than  by  the  disciples,  and  from  His  perfect 
knowledc^e  of  the  human  heart  He  would 
take  a  lesson  for  the  continual  use  of  His 
disciples,  and  of  all  who  preach  His 
word. 

The  crowd  was  very  great,  ''There  was 
gathered  unto  him  a  great  multitude," 
coming  ''  out  of  every  city,"  along  that 
thickly  populated  lake-shore,  and  filled 
with  eao^erness  to  hear  the  wonderful  words 
of  the  new  prophet.  The  enthusiasm 
would  have  gladdened  the  heart  of  any 
human  teacher,  yet  Christ  speaks  to  the 
crowd  a  parable  that  carries  a  sad  strain 
in  almost  every  sentence.  The  disciples 
were  disappointed,  )  et  they  were  curious 
to  know  their  Master's  purpose. 

*'  IV/iy  speakest  thoic  to  tJiein  in  para- 
bles .?"    **  What  might  this  parable  7nea7i  ?'' 

They  had  yet  but  little  experience  of 
their  Teacher's  ways,  and  were  only  begin- 
ning   to   understand   His  mission  among 


12  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

them.  They  had  not  learned,  and  how 
few  of  us  have  learned,  to  wait  patiently 
with  a  sure  confidence  that  He  who  spake 
as  never  man  speaks,  has  spoken  with 
unerring  wisdom. 

He  knows  that  in  a  few  days,  when  He 
forces  the  real  nature  of  His  mission  on 
their  dull  hearts,  that  crowd  will  scatter  to 
all  distances  from  Him,  some  even  to  do 
their  part  in  hastening  His  condemnation. 
He  sees  the  whole  field  of  livincr  souls 
before  Him  divided  into  the  four  classes 
He  describes  in  the  parable,  and  in  deep 
sadness  utters  what  He  so  certainly  knows 
and  so  keenly  feels.  How  few  are  the 
real  members  of  His  divine  kingdom,  and 
what  a  crowd  of  eager  seekers  after  sen- 
sations ! 

The  Saviour  s  reply  tells  how  He  under- 
Stood  the  question  of  His  little  school  of 
disciples.  "  Therefore  speak  I  to  them 
in  parables;  because  seeing  they  see  not, 
and  hearing  they  hear  not,  neither  do  they 
understand."  Over  that  soil  He  has  sown 
the  pure  seed  of  divine  truth,  yet  all  their 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  1 3 

thoughts  are  carnal.  ''In  them  is  fulfilled 
the  prophecy  of  Isaiah,  which  saith,  By 
heariiig  ye  shall  hea7%  and  shall  not  under- 
stand; and  seeing  ye  shall  see,  and  shall  not 
perceive :  for  this  people  s  heart  is  waxed 
gross,  and  their  ears  are  dull  of  Jiearing, 
and  their  eyes  they  have  closed;  lest  at  any 
time  they  should  see  with  their  eyes,  a?id 
hear  with  their  ears,  and  should  tender- 
stand  zoith  their  hearty  and  should  be  con- 
verted, and  I  should  heal  them''  They 
see  and  hear,  but  their  hearts  are  become 
so  gross  and  foul  that  they  cannot  under- 
stand, or  they  would  be  converted.  What 
a  fearful  sentence  to  pronounce  upon  any 
class  of  human  beings,  and  yet  how  true ! 
He  sees  in  that  crowd  the  fulfillment  of 
the  prophecy  of  Isaiah,  and  He  prophesies 
a  result  soon  to  be  apparent  to  all.  The 
enthusiasm  is  at  its  heiofht,  and  avast  mul- 
titude  is  eager  to  make  Him  king;  but  in 
a  few  days  He  will  enter  Capernaum,  and 
to  the  same  multitude,  with  increase.  He 
will  preach  that  wonderful  sermon  on  the 
Bread  of  Life,  after  which  the  whole  Gal- 


14  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

Ilean  revival  seemed  to  collapse  In  almost 
total  failure. 

In  this  parable  of  the  Sower,  Christ 
says  to  all  in  that  crowd  who  understand 
him,  "Examine  yourselves,  and  make  sure 
of  your  own  position,  for  in  a  few  days  I 
will  pour  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  real 
truth  I  came  to  teach,  that  will  blind  those 
who  are  still  filled  with  the  gross  darkness 
of  ignorance  and  unbelief;  and  at  the 
same  time  I  will  also  make  clearer  the 
boundaries  of  My  heavenly  kingdom — one 
class  of  you  will  be  within  the  kingdom, 
many  classes  without.  To  which  class  do 
you  belong  ?  " 

To  His  disciples  He  would  say — "judge 
not  by  appearance,  but  learn  well  the  les- 
son of  this  parable,  for  it  is  the  judgment 
of  omniscience  upon  every  audience  you 
will  have  to  teach."  Their  own  high,  and 
not  very  clear,  expectations  might  easily 
lead  them  to  put  too  great  a  value  upon 
the  eagerness  and  enthusiasm  of  the 
increasing  crowd.  He  bids  them  look 
deeper.    For  their  Instruction,  He  analyzes 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  1 5 

the  very  hearts  of  that  listening  congre- 
o-ation,  and  shows  how  few  of  them  are 
''  good  and  honest"  soil  in  which  truth  can 
o-row.  It  is  an  infinitely  sad  thought. 
Not  only  that  many  of  them  will  not  re- 
ceive the  truth,  but  cannot.  Their  hearts 
are  too  barren,  or  too  thorny.  They  have 
lost  their  capacity  to  receive  the  truth  with 
understanding.  Was  this  more  true  then 
than  now  ?  Are  there  not  multitudes  now 
whose  hearts  are  so  gross  as  to  make  it 
impossible  for  spiritual  truth  to  enter  and 
abide  ? 

No  longer  can  those  who  catch  the 
meaning  of  the  parable  be  entirely  unmind- 
ful of  the  high  and  unselfish  purpose  of 
their  teacher ;  nor  can  they  be  altogether 
blind  to  the  grossness  and  insincerity  of 
the  ereat  conereo^ations  that  listened  to 
Him. 

Misinterpretation  of  the  parable  is  an 
evident  revelation  of  His  own  omniscience, 
and  a  clear  exhibition  of  His  position  as 
a  teacher  from  God.  At  the  same  time  it 
is    an   impressive  lesson  to   His  disciples 


1 6  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

Upon  the  great  necessity  for  the  possession 
of  a  rl^ht  spirit  In  order  to  understand  all 
parables,  and  rightly  judge  all  congrega- 
tions. The  Parable  of  the  Sower  has  been 
to  all  Christ's  followers  an  important, 
though  sometimes  very  discouraging,  les- 
son. The  hard  experiences  of  centuries 
have  vividly  Illustrated  and  proven  true 
these  words  of  Him  who  "  knew  what  was 
in  man,"  and  no  longer  can  a  teacher  of 
truth  speak  to  any  audience  without  the 
thought  that  here,  too,  are  the  four  classes 
of  hearers.  It  is  the  handwriting  of  God 
upon  every  assembly  listening  to  the  gos- 
pel message.  A  few  will  hear  the  truth 
and  treasure  It  in  good  and  honest  hearts, 
but  the  other  classes  are  the  more  numer- 
ous. ''  Having  ears  they  hear  not."  All 
who  hear  are  modified  by  the  truth,  but 
how  few  are  sanctified  by  it  !  Is  it  not 
strange  and  sorrowful  that  so  few  receive 
the  truth  Into  hearts  all  ready  for  its  full- 
est growth,  when  the  reward  of  knowing 
God  is  eternal  life  ? 

Many    loudly-applauded    philanthropic 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  1  7 

schemes  to  reform  the  world  have  had  a  sud- 
den success  that  deceived  men  into  a  tem- 
porary behef  that  they  were  divinely  true, 
but  their  false  interpretation  of  God,  and 
their  blindness  to  the  narrowness,  the  hard- 
ness, and  the  thorny  condition  of  our  sinful 
hearts,  have  caused  them  to  pass  away  as 
visions  in  the  night,  leaving  the  world  still 
unreformed.  But  no  follower  of  Christ, 
however  enthusiastic  for  the  world's  re- 
demption, can  for  a  moment  leave  out  of 
account  the  sin-disturbed  vision,  and  sin- 
deadened  ears  of  our  degenerate  souls. 
He  ever  remembers  that  "the  servant  is 
not  greater  than  his  Lord"  even  in  this, 
and  if  they  would  not  hear  the  Master 
they  are  not  likely  to  hear  the  disciple.  If 
from  the  hand  of  the  divine  Sower  the 
seed  fell  into  but  few  hearts  that  were 
"honest  and  good,"  the  disciple  may  expect, 
without  discouragement,  that  while  he 
must  "sow  beside  all  waters,"  only  here 
and  there  will  there  be  a  harvest. 

Yet  all  true  disciples  of  Christ  work  for 
His  kincrdom  under  the  dominance  of  the 

o 
3 


1 8  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

ever  present  hope  of  its  full  success.   ''Thy 

kingdom  come,"  is  their  earnest   prayer, 

but  it  is  also  a  loyal  acceptance  of  their 

Master's  prophecy  that  ''the  gospel  of  the 

kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  the  whole 

world."     It  is  not  their  dream,   it  is  not 

any    mere   scheme  of  reformation,  but  a 

steady,  determined  sowing  of  the   "word 

of    the    kingdom,"  the    fruit  of   which  is 

ever  good,  and    which    would  make  this 

world  all  fruitful  of  heavenly  graces  if  all 

hearts  were  but  "good  and  honest."     It  is 

the  seed  of  love,  the  foundation  of  all  true 

and  abiding  philanthropy.     Yet,  if  there 

were  no  promise  of  success,  but  only  the 

command  to  sow,  every  true  disciple  would 

work  with  all  diliorence  because  it  is  the 

<_> 

will  of  his  Lord. 

The  disciples  very  evidently  feel  that 
Christ  has  thoughts  deeper  than  the  mere 
literal  meaning  of  the  parable,  and  they 
ask  for  the  interpretation.  He  answers 
with  a  very  suggestive  question,  "  Know  ye 
not  this  parable,  how  then  will  ye  know 
all  parables?"     What,  not  understand  so 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  '       1 9 

simple  a  parable  as  this?     How  then  will 
ye  understand  the  deeper  parables  which 
teach  of  Jehovah's  nature  and  man's  eter- 
nal future  ?     This  may  be  the  meaning  of 
His  question,  but  does  it  not  go  deeper? 
Does  it  not  reach  down  to  the  innermost 
spirit  of  every  listener?   The  Christ  might 
stand  before  this  congregation  and  say,  "  I 
show  you  the  Father?"  and  we  answer, 
"only  show  us  the  Father  and  it  sufficeth 
us."     ''What,"  he  says,  "have  I  been  so 
long  time  with  you,  and  yet  hast  thou  not 
known  Me?     He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath 
seen    the    Father."     The  fault  is  not    in 
Him,  it  is  not  in  God;  it  is  in  our  hearts. 
The  "pure  in  heart  shall  see  God."    Like- 
ness  is   essential  to   perfect    understand- 
ing.    No  man  can  have  any  clear  insight 
into    that    with    which    he    has    no    sym- 
pathy. 

As  Hartley  Coleridge  says  :  "  Sympathy 
is  the  ground  of  mutual  understand- 
ing." Or  as  Wordsworth  so  beautifully 
expresses  it :  "  You  must  love  Him  ere  to 
you  He  seem  worthy  of  your  love." 


20  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

"  Whate'er  we  look  on,  at  our  side 
Be  charity — to  bid  us  think. 
And  feel,  if  we  would  know." 

Irving,  in  his  Columbus,  Bk.  7,  ch.  i, 
first  paragraph,  gives  a  perfect  illustration 
of  this  necessity  of  sympathy  in  order  to 
understanding.  It  is  a  necessity  alwa^'s, 
but  especially  in  spiritual  matters. 

The  doubting  Thomas  cannot  see  the 
glorious  meaning  of  the  Christ  life ;  but 
the  new-born  Thomas  bows  humbly,  and 
with  the  very  heart  says,  "  My  Lord  and 
my  God." 

Apply  this  to  that  audience  listening  to 
the  parable  as  Christ  first  utters  it.  Gross 
of  heart,  stubborn  and  blind,  how  could 
they  understand  a  spiritual  parable?  "Their 
mood  is  for  revolution,  but  not  of  their 
own  lives."  They  would  make  Jesus  a 
king,  but  not  In  their  souls,  nor  according 
to  the  Idea  of  His  spiritual  kingdom.  They 
are  full  of  enthusiasm  for  a  miracle- 
worker  who  can  feed  them  with  loaves  and 
fishes,  but  where  Is  their  zeal  for  truth, 
or  loving,  patient  endurance  for  right- 
eousness sake  ? 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  2  1 

About  one-half  of  Christ's  earthly  min- 
istry is  gone.  He  has  scattered  the  seeds 
of  truth  broadcast  over  many  great  audi- 
ences. In  spring-time,  when  hearts  were 
opened  with  need  and  expectation,  with 
divine  skill  He  had  sown  the  good  seed 
''beside  all  waters."  Not  in  parables,  but 
in  plain  speech.  Not  in  similitudes,  but 
in  the  concise,  startling,  enduring  beati- 
tudes. His  hearers  saw  His  mighty  deeds, 
but  saw  not  their  meaning  or  purpose. 
They  heard  His  wonderful  teachings,  but 
caught  not  their  life-giving  value.  ''  See- 
ing, they  see  not;  hearing,  they  hear  not." 
Now,  as  he  wraps  His  thoughts  in  parable, 
those  who  understand  may  see  the  truth 
more  clearly  by  the  dress  in  which  it  is 
clothed,  and  in  which  those  who  have  hard- 
ened themselves  into  grossness  of  heart 
may  find  their  own  judgment.  Some  went 
up  into  clearer  light;  the  many  went  down 
into  deeper  darkness.  Yet  even  as  these 
"  despisers  of  the  word  "  went  lower  and 
lower,  the  familiar  parable  would  cling  to 
their  memories,  and  might  even  yet  chal- 


2  2  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

lenge  their  attention  to  its  hidden  truths. 
As  Von  Gerlach  says :  "A  parable  is  Hke 
the  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire,  which  turned  the 
dark  side  to  the  Egyptians,  the  bright  side 
to  the  people  of  the  covenant;  it  is  like 
a  shell  which  keeps  the  precious  kernel  as 
well  for  the  diligent  as  from  the  indolent." 
When  they  would  not  hear  the  plain  warn- 
ings and  commands,  when  through  gross- 
ness  of  heart  they  could  not  take  hold  of 
His  spiritual  promises,  Christ  gave  the 
divine  message  in  parables  in  order  that, 
if  possible,  some  of  them  might  even  yet 
perceive  the  deeper  meaning  within  and 
be  saved.  Christ  does  not  abandon  them 
when  they  reject  His  message,  but  contin- 
ues always  to  preach  to  them  the  word  of 
life  ''And  with  many  such  parables  spake 
He  the  word  unto  them,  as  they  were  able 
to  hear  it  :  and  without  a  parable  spake  He 
not  unto  them;  but  privately  to  His  own 
disciples  He  expounded  all  things." 

But  may  we  not  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
feeling  in  the  heart  of  the  Teacher  as  He 
uttered    this  parable,   and   thus    see    still 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  23 

more  clearly  its  deeper  meaning?  Com- 
plained of,  upbraided,  misunderstood  ; 
selfish  motives  ascribed  to  His  pure  deeds  , 
Isolated,  without  sympathy,  without  the 
confidence  of  those  He  came  to  save ; 
charged  with  crime  by  those  for  whom  He 
would  die  ;  sorrowing  unto  death  with  the 
knowledge  of  human  sinfulness  ;  thus  out 
of  a  heart  so  familiar  with  grief,  He  utters 
this  parable.  It  was  His  omniscient  view 
of  the  gigantic  struggle  now  begun 
between  truth  from  God  and  human  sin- 
fulness. Is  It  any  wonder  that  He  spake 
this  parable  in  sadness?  This  was  His 
prophecy  concerning  the  reception  of  the 
truth,  and  all  the  history  of  Christianity 
Is  the  fulfillment  of  His  word.  His  In- 
finite longing  to  save  His  people  from  the 
tyranny  of  sin,  and  from  its  final  awful 
fruits;  His  Immeasurable  love  for  human 
souls  ;  His  divine  enthusiasm  for  the  truth, 
could  not  dim  His  vision  to  the  reality  of 
the  wilful  rejection  by  men  of  His  sub- 
llmest  efforts. 

Infinitely  sad,  yet  certainly  true,  is  this 


24  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

parable  ;  and  as  true  to-day  as  when  Christ 
stood  in  the  boat  on  Galilee's  lake  so  loner 
agfo  And  thus  the  record  of  Christ's  own 
experience  as  a  teacher  became  a  proph- 
ecy of  the  experience  of  every  teacher  of 
truth   so   lonor  as  men  remain  the  willincr 

o  o 

slaves  of  sin. 

With  what  meaning  and  power  this  par- 
able must  have  come  to  His  disciples 
when,  in  later  days,  they  tried  to  put  spir- 
itual truths  into  sensual  and  selfish  hearts  ! 
They  are  to  preach  the  gospel  of  love  and 
peace  to  just  such  audiences  as  this  now 
before  the  Saviour,  and  it  is  all  important 
that  they  should  know,  not  only  the  truth 
as  it  is  represented  in  Jesus,  but  also  the 
characters  of  their  hearers,  and  the  recep- 
tion the  word  of  truth  will  meet.  They 
are  eager,  believing  followers,  but  as  yet 
only  half  understanding  the  great  mission 
for  which  their  Teacher  is  preparing  them. 
Even  long  after  this  they  were  sorely  vexed 
and  surprised  at  their  own  lack  of  success. 
How  soon  and  how  thoroughly  they 
learned   what   needs   no   Illustration  now, 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  25 

that  the  hearts  of  men  are  not  incHned 
towards  the  truth  as  it  is  revealed  in 
Jesus ! 

The  answer  to  the  question  of  the  dis- 
ciples may  be  further  gathered  from 
Christ's  words  in  Mark  4,:  11.  ''Unto 
you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mysteries  of 
the  kincrdom  of  God  :  but  to  them  that 
are  without,  all  things  are  done  in  para- 
bles." This  suggests  a  definite  design  for 
parables  in  relation  to  the  "  Kingdom  of 
God."  To  those  within  the  kino^dom, 
suggesting  truth  and  illustrating  it  for 
their  upbuilding;  to  those  without  the 
kingdom,  leaving  a  possibility  that  in  the 
imagery  some  soul  may  catch  a  view  of 
the  truth,  and  be  led  to  fuller  knowledge. 
Christ's  great  mission  on  earth  was  to 
establish  this  kinordom  in  all  the  hearts  of 
men.  They  had  revolted,  and  become 
subjects  of  another  king,  the  ''  Prince  of 
this  world."  They  must  be  won  back  to 
their  rightful  Lord,  reinstated  in  the  king- 
dom of  life.  For  this  Christ  lived  and 
died.      As  a  kinor  He  came  into  the  world 


26  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil,  and  win 
back  man's  allegiance  to  Himself.  The 
whole  ministry  of  Christ  was  built  about 
this  one  central  idea  of  a  kingdom.  "The 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand."  '' Jesus 
came  into  Galilee  preaching  the  gospel  of 
the  kingdom  of  God."  '*  I  must  preach 
the  kingdom  of  God  to  other  cities  also ; 
for  therefore  am  I  sent."  That  wonderful 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  a  partial  exposi- 
tion of  the  law  of  this  kingdom.  He 
commissioned  His  disciples  to  "go  preach, 
saying,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at 
hand."  To  the  "seventy,"  He  said,  "  Say 
unto  them,  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  come 
nigh  unto  you."  And  in  all  His  earthly 
ministry  He  never  let  go  His  kingly  pre- 
rogative Even  in  lowliest  service.  He 
was  kingly.  He  was  king  in  the  presence 
of  Pilate,  in  the  midst  of  the  mob,  in  His 
suffering  on  the  cross,  in  His  promise  to 
the  dying  thief,  in  His  triumphant  resur- 
rection, and  in  His  regal  ascension.  He 
was  a  king  in  the  splendor  of  His  claims, 
in   the  grandeur   of  His  promises,  in  the 


TEACHING    BY    PARABI.ES.  2  7 

sublimity  of  His  prophecies,  in  the  right- 
eousness of  His  judgments,  in  the  equity 
of  His  laws,  in  the  vastness  of  His  realm, 
in  the  countless  multitude  of  His  subjects. 
For  what  other  king  were  ever  such  weap- 
ons forged  as  truth  and  love  ?  For  what 
other  sovereign  have  men  displayed  such 
exalted  moral  courao^e  ?  For  what  other 
''leader  and  commander"  have  so  many 
thousands  died  with  quiet  heart  and  for- 
giving word  ?  What  other  king  ever  con- 
quered by  patient  love  and  won  victories 
by  dying?  What  other  king  was  ever 
anointed  of  God  a  "leader  and  commander" 
to  all  people  ?  He  was  the  very  ''  King 
of  kings."  And  the  doctrine  of  a  spir- 
itual kingdom  was  the  one  theme  of  His 
teaching. 

At  this  time  when  He  is  about  to  utter 
His  first  parable,  when  the  enthusiasm  is 
at  the  highest,  and  crowds  were  proclaim- 
ing Him  king,  we  see  a  division  work 
becoming  apparent.  While  this  work 
began  at  the  very  beginning  of  His  min- 
istry, yet  so  marked  was  it  at  the  time  of 


28  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

this  parable  that  many  immediately  went 
back  and  walked  no  more  with  Him.  The 
truth  had  at  last  entered  their  minds  that 
His  kingdom  was  spiritual,  a  kingdom  of 
regenerate  character. 

He  was  gathering  around  Him  a  little 
band  of  true  members  of  His  kinordom, 
into  whose  minds  He  poured  the  wealth 
of  His  kingly  teaching,  which  through 
them  was  to  be  scattered  broadcast  over 
the  world.  To  this  little  inner  circle,  the 
first  of  the  many  that  shall  fill  the  earth, 
He  spake  directly,  without  any  other  veil 
to  His  deep  meanings  than  the  human 
words  which  conveyed  them.  These  were 
loyal  subjects,  with  hearts  ready  for  the 
seed,  with  minds  already  subject  to  the 
laws  of  His  spiritual  kingdom,  for  Christ 
was  a  king  in  every  life  of  this  little  army 
now  being  marshalled  for  the  conquest  of 
the  world.  Others  might  sit  with  His 
loyal  disciples,  but  to  them  alone  was  He 
giving  the  invulnerable  armor  of  His  own 
graces,  and  the  keen-edged  sword  of  divine 
truth. 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  29 

''But  to  those  without  He  spake  zji par- 
ables. 

The  disciples  saw  that  He  made  a  dis- 
tinction between  themselves  and  the  mul- 
titude that  crowded  to  hear  His  teach- 
ings, and  they  inquired  of  him  the  reason. 
Before  giving  them  a  direct  reply,  He  lays 
down  the  principle  on  which  His  action 
is  based.  "  Whosoever  hath,  to  him  shall 
be  given,  and  he  shall  have  more  abun- 
dance, but  whosoever  hath  not,  from  him 
shall  be  taken  away  even  that  he  hath." 
Whoever  possesses  any  truth,  shows  the 
ability  to  receive  truth.  Whoever  does 
not  possess,  shows  want  of  ability  to 
receive.  Whoever,  by  possession  of  the 
first  truths  of  the  kingdom,  shows  his  fit- 
ness and  ability  to  receive  higher  teachings, 
will  receive  abundance  ;  but  he  who  has 
not  received  the  beginning,  cannot  receive 
the  completion.  The  man  who  rejects  the 
spirit  of  the  kingdom,  is  unprepared  to 
understand  its  laws. 

Spiritual  meanings  are  ever  hidden  from 
the  hard-hearted  and  selfish,  and  revealed 


30  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

to  those  who  are  willing  and  able  to  receive 
them;  while  the  highest  truths  are  revealed 
to  the  true  heart  of  faith,  and  always  con- 
cealed from  the  careless  and  gross-hearted. 
That  man  whose  heart  possesses  truth 
has  a  magnet  within  himself  to  which  all 
truth  is  in  some  degree  attracted.  He  has 
that  In  him  which  makes  all  that  Is  true 
attractive  to  him,  and  with  every  new 
acquisition  of  truth  there  comes  an  increase 
of  pleasure  In  Its  pursuit.  When  a  man  has 
a  little  Information  on  any  subject,  every 
item  concerning  it  is  read  with  pleasure, 
and  is  naturally  assimilated  with  the  knowl- 
edge previously  acquired.  When  the 
heart  is  not  open  to  the  dawning  of  the 
light,  its  later,  noonday  beams  will  only 
dazzle  and  blind. 

But  our  Saviour  had  a  further  meaning. 
The  soul  that  rejects  His  truth  shall  see 
going  from  him  the  very  opportunity  of 
hearing  the  plain,  direct  commands  of 
Christ,  and  will  hear  them  only  in  para- 
bles which  he  may  interpret  to  his  own 
condemnation. 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  3 1 

Christ  had  spoken  plainly  to  all  alike  of 
His  mission  as  a  king.     Some  received  the 
truth,  and  thus  were  prepared  for  a  higher 
education  in   divine   things.      Others  had 
so    misused    and    abused    their  ability  to 
receive  spiritual  truth  that  it  is  only  cast- 
ing pearls  before  swine  to  preach  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  to  them.      Disuse  or  mis- 
use of  their  higher  faculties  had  left  them 
unable   to    see  any  meaning  beyond   the 
physical.     The  years  of  His  earthly  min- 
istry are  few,  and  the  causes  of  the  world's 
reformation   must   all   be  put   in  motion. 
Shall  He  now  continue  to  scatter  seed  on 
all  alike  ?     He  does  not,  but  takes  the  few 
who  were  fitted  by  the  possession  of  the 
first  principles  of  the  kingdom  for  a  more 
rapid    growth  in    this  higher  knowledge, 
into  a  closer  relation  with  Himself,  that  He 
might  teach  them  more  fully  the  myster- 
ies of  the  kingdom  of  God.     To  them  the 
Saviour   will  give  more  and  more  abun- 
dantly of    His  rich  gifts.     To  the  multi- 
tude who  had  rejected  this  plain    procla- 


32  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

matlon  of  His  mission,  He  will  veil   His 
meaning  in  parables. 

*'  They  will  not  heai^ :  therefore  in  jttdg- 
vtent  I  speak  to  them  in  par  ablest 

What  is  helpful  truth  to  one  is  judgment 
to  another.  The  Christian  rejoices  in  the 
thought  that  there  is  a  God  who  knoweth 
all  things;  while  to  the  "wicked"  the 
thought  of  Jehovah's  omniscience  is  a 
terrible  judgment.  Christ  had  spoken 
tenderly  and  plainly  to  all  concerning  the 
beauties  and  glories  of  His  kingdom.  He 
had  earnestly  besought  them  to  receive  its 
sacred  privileges  and  blessings.  They 
had  heard  and  rejected.  They  despised 
His  truths  when  they  saw  that  His  king- 
dom was  not  of  this  world,  and  thus 
proved  themselves  unfit  to  be  taken  into 
that  inner  circle  of  truth-seekers  who 
heard  Him  gladly.  The  higher  truths  and 
aspirations  of  the  Christian  life  are  always 
foolishness  to  one  without  the  kinordom. 
The  *'  Sermon  on  the  Mount  "  would  have 
been  but  pearls  cast  before  swine  to  the 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  ^T, 

crowd  orathered  at  Sinai.  Christ's  truths 
were  the  revelation  of  Himself  to  the 
souls  of  men.  Reject  His  teachings,  and 
you  reject  His  life.  If,  therefore,  in  judg- 
ment He  withdraws  Himself  and  His 
teachings  from  you.  He  is  but  acting 
according  to  your  desire 

Jesus  had  truths  to  state  which  were  of 
great  importance  to  His  disciples  in  their 
ministry  as  his  witnesses.  To  state  these 
to  the  multitude  would  only  excite  them 
to  greater  hatred,  and  endanger  the  life 
and  ministry  of  both  Himself  and  His 
disciples.  He,  therefore,  chose  to  state 
the  doctrine  so  that  if  their  hearts  were 
right,  if  any  capability  to  receive  the  truth 
were  left  in  them,  they  would  catch  His 
meaning  ;  but  if  they  were  gross  of 
heart,  malignant,  haters  of  the  truth, 
they  would  not  understand. 

From  this  time  forward  the  Saviour 
veils  his  truths  from  the  multitude.  He 
d6es  not  abandon  them.  He  does  not 
refuse  to  teach  them.  But  they  hear  no 
more   sermons   of    the    mount,   no    more 


34  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

direct  unfoldings  of  the  rich  truths  of 
His  kingdom. 

Those  within  the  kingdom  are  no  longer 
servants,  but  nearest  friends,  to  whom  He 
reveals  the  highest  meanings  of  His  life, 
and  inspires  them  with  the  promise  of 
eternal  life  in  His  likeness.  Those  with- 
out the  kingdom  are  aliens.  To  them, 
parables  are  as  judgments.  Having 
eyes,  they  see  not  the  truth  :  having  ears, 
they  hear  not  the  meaning  of  the  words 
that  come  to  them. 

Yet  Christ  does  not  completely  with- 
draw Himself  when  they  reject  His 
teachings.  He  still  speaks  to  them  in 
parables.  There  may  be  some  who  will 
hear  aright.     Some  even   of    those  who 

would   have   been   aroused   to   d-anoferous 

<_> 

anger  by  plain  statement  of  the  truth,  by 
continual  repetition  of  it  in  parables  might 
be  led  up  unsuspecting  to  a  state  of  mind 
where  truth  could  be  received.  **  It  is  a 
blessing  to  have  truth  near,  though  sepa- 
rated by  a  veil."  Moreover,  this  was  the 
only  chance  left  them  to  hear  the  word  of 


TEACHING    BY    PARABLES.  35 

life.  They  had  rejected  the  plain  state- 
ment of  the  truth,  and  this  is  the  only 
method  left  by  which  it  can  possibly  reach 
them.  And  these  pictures  from  nature 
have  a  power  of  clinging  to  the  mind  in  a 
way  that  sometimes  effects  what  the  most 
earnest  direct  teachings  fail  to  accomplish. 
Thus  judgment  and  mercy,  side  by  side, 
were  sifting  the  multitude,  and  separating 
those  within  the  kingdom  from  those  with- 
out. By  parables  they  may  yet  receive 
the  truth  ;  and  if  they  still  reject  it,  there 
is  the  palliation  that  the  truth  is  veiled. 
Mercy  and  judgment  may  not  be  sepa- 
rated, but  the  latter  will  be  held  in  abey- 
ance until  all  the  facts  of  the  Saviour's 
life  are  acted  out ;  until  the  cross,  and  the 
grave,  and  the  empty  tomb  have  fully 
established  His  kingdom  and  made  its 
mysteries  clear.  Then  after  the  Spirit 
has  come,  His  trained  disciples  with  clear 
vision,  renewed  hearts,  and  divine  guid- 
ance, will  preach  this  kingdom  with  mar- 
velous power.  The  seed  sown  by  the 
Saviour  in  these  parables  which  still  cling 


^6  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 


J 


to  the  minds  of  the  multitude,  watered  by 
the  Spirit,  now,  under  the  earnest  teach- 
ing of  the  disciples,  may  yet  bring  forth 
some  harvest  of  ripened  convictions.  Who 
can  tell  how  much  of  the  harvest  gathered 
at  Pentecost  grew  from  the  earlier  sow- 
ing of  the  Son  of  God? 


"HEAR  YE  THE  PARABLE    OE 
THE   SOWER." 


"  In  the  morning  sow  thy  seed,  and  in  the  evening  with- 
hold not  thine  hand."     Eccles.  ii  :  6. 

"  In  the  name  of  God  advancing, 

Sow  thy  seed  at  morning  light  ; 
Cheerily  the  furrows  turning, 

Labor  on  with  all  thy  might. 
Look  not  to  the  far-off  future, 

Do  the  work  which  nearest  lies  ; 
Sow  thou  must  before  thou  reapest, 

Rest  at  last  is  labor's  prize. 

"Standing  still  is  dangerous  ever, 

Toil  is  meant  for  Christians  now  ; 
Let  there  be,  when  evening  cometh, 

Honest  sweat  on  every  brow  ; 
And  the  Master  shall  come  smiling, 

At  the  setting  of  the  sun, 
Saying,  as  He  pays  thy  wages, 

'  Good  and  faithful  one,  well  done  ! '  " 

From  unknown  Germaft  Author, 


-HEAR   YE  THE   PARABLE  OF 
THE    SOWER." 

Matt.  13,  Mark  4,  Luke  8. 

Christ  challenges  the  closest  attention 
to  this  first  parable. 

Let  us  give  heed  to  the  Master's  words, 
asking,  as  sincere  disciples,  for  the  inter- 
pretation, while  we  examine  the  parable 
and  its  exposition  by  our  Lord. 

It  Is  a  part  of  that  great  revelation  of 
Himself  which  God  has  made  to  His 
people.  Jehovah  is  become  the  seed  of  a 
divine  life  within  man,  and  the  husband- 
man to  cultivate  that  life  to  a  perfect  har- 
vest. The  King  of  kings  is  become  the 
Father  of  His  people  ;  the  omnipotent  God 
reveals  Himself  as  the  tenderly  merciful 
and  long-suffering  Redeemer  ;  the  Judge  of 
all  the  earth  bows  in  deep  humiliation  to 
bear  His  people's  burdens  ;  the  omniscient 
One,  with  His  own  blood,  blots  out  of  His 
sight  the  sins  of  His  redeemed.  We  cannot 
of  ourselves  add  anything  to  the  sum  of 
holiness,  and  even  as  we  try  to  reflect  the 


40  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

holiness  of  God,  it  is  marred  by  our 
shadows,  and  the  mirrored  imag^e  is  often  a 
deformed  one.  With  our  reflection  of  the 
gentleness,  charity,  and  zeal  of  Christ,  we 
are  ever  mingling  our  own  harshness  and 
coldly  formal  service.  We  are  sinful,  and, 
strive  as  we  may,  we  always  fall  short  of 
any  great  attainment  in  righteousness. 
Yet  the  seed  of  a  divinely  perfect  life  is 
sown  within  us,  and  the  infinitely  wise 
Sower,  who  knew  the  end  from  the  begin- 
ning, has  prophesied  a  full  harvest.  This 
seed  is  the  ''  word  of  the  kingdom."  **  Thy 
word  is  truth," — the  truth  that  scattered 
in  human  hearts  brings  *'  the  kingdom  of 
God  and  His  righteousness"  into  the 
world  of  human  life  and  sinfulness. 

This  parable,  so  wonderfully  fitted  to 
the  occasion  when  the  divine  Teacher  used 
it  to  describe  that  crowd  standing  by  Gen- 
esareth,  is  as  accurately  true  to-day  in  every 
assenfbly  to  which  the  gospel  is  preached. 
Four  classes  of  hearers  were  defined 
then,  and  all  four  are  here  to-day.  You  be- 
long to  one,  and  only  one,  of  these  classes. 


THE    SCENE.  4 1 

THE     SCENE. 

What  a  picture  Is  here  suggested  by 
the  Inspired  writer !  A  great  multitude 
full  of  enthusiasm,  curious,  excited,  crowd- 
ing out  of  Capernaum  and  the  neighboring 
villages,  eager  to  catch  every  word  of  the 
wonderful  Teacher.  Pressed  by  the  throng, 
this  Teacher  steps  Into  a  boat,  and  a  few 
strokes  of  the  oars  carry  Him  and  His 
disciples  away  from  the  crowd,  yet  He  waits 
near  enough  to  the  shore  for  all  the  mul- 
titude  to  hear.  Only  a  narrow  strip  of 
water  separated  His  body  from  the  crowd, 
but  what  an  infinite  distance  separated 
Him  In  spirit  from  them!  A  rude  pulpit, 
that  unsteady  fishing  boat,  but  from  it 
came  a  message  as  abiding  and  as  power- 
ful as  truth  from  God. 

Five  hundred  feet  below  the  level  of  the 
sea,  in  a  cleft  of  the  hills,  lies  the  lake  of 
Galilee.  Thus,  as  If  from  the  lowest  sta- 
tion He  could  reach,  Christ  spake  to  the 
multitude  crowding  the  shore  that  sloped 
gently  up  from  the  water's  edge  to  the 
mountain  ridge  above.   .  Before   His  eyes 

5. 


42  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

were  large  and  busy  towns  and  hamlets, 
and  terraced  hills  covered  with  fruitful 
vineyards, — Gennesaret,  the  ''garden  of 
princes." 

Probably  as  His  eyes  return  from  the 
Father's  face,  He  sees  a  sower  scattering 
grain  on  the  hill-side  above  and  behind 
the  waltlnor  crowd  that  stood  like  the 
ploughed  field  ready  to  receive  the  seed. 
We  can  almost  see  them  turn  to  look  as 
He  bids  them, 

''Behold,  the  sower  went  forth  to  sow'' 
Galilee's  lake  still  lies  among  her  silent 
hills,  pure  and  clear  as  when  this  parable 
was  spoken ;  but  sail  and  oar  now  seldom 
disturb  her  waters.  The  villao^es  and 
vineyards  that  once  lay  all  along  her  shores 
are  to  be  traced  only  In  a  few  ruins  ;  and 
the  crowds  that  listened  to  the  voice  of 
Jesus  are  two  thousand  years  away  beyond 
death.  Still  that  voice  speaks  to  us,  and 
still  those  seeds  of  truth  fall  like  heavenly 
manna  upon  our  hungry  souls,  and  to-day 
are  producing  a  richer  and  grander  harvest 
in   our  world  than  even  when  they  came 


THE    SEED.  43 

in  all  their  freshness  and  vigor  from  the 
Master's  heart.  Rather,  we  are  still  reap- 
ino-  the  fruits  of  that  sowino^of  the  divine 
husbandman.  These  fruits  are  in  all 
our  thoughts  and  hopes,  in  all  our  homes 
and  cities,  fruits  that  have  their  root  in 
that  Master  s  life  and  work  two  thousand 
years  ago. 

THE    SEED. 

"Seeing  ye  have  puritied  your  souls 
in  your  obedience  to  the  truth  unto  un- 
feigned love  of  the  brethren,  love  one 
another  from  the  (clean)  heart  fervently; 
having  been  begotten  again,  not  of  cor- 
ruptible seed,  but  of  incorruptible,  through 
the  word  of  God,  which  liveth  and  abid- 
eth."     I  Peter  i:  23. 

"  The  seed  is  the  word  of  God!' 

All  teachings  are  seeds  that  must  pro- 
duce some  fruit  in  every  life  into  which 
they  fall.  All  uttered  thoughts  are  seeds 
that  hold  within  themselves  some  life  for 
future    growth.      In    what    a    high    sense 


44  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

must  this  be  true  of  the  ''  Word  of  God," 
which  He  spake  who  was  Himself  the 
power  within  all  His  teachings  ! 

Observe  this  seed.  It  is  from  God, 
who  knows  man  thoroughly,  his  history, 
his  needs,  and  his  capabilities  ;  who  also 
knows  the  truth  in  its  own  greatness,  in 
its  fitness  to  deliver  man  Into  hiorhest  free- 
dom,  and  in  its  life-giving  power  as  repre- 
sented to  the  world  in  Jesus.  The  all-wise 
God,  knowing  the  end  from  the  beginning, 
has  given  this  seed  of  life  as  perfectly 
adapted  to  supply  man's  need,  and  to  grow 
up  in  him  to  an  endless  life. 

Christ  scatters  the  seed  with  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  all  this,  and  with  an  eternal 
purpose  that  it  shall  produce  an  abundant 
harvest  In  every  good  and  honest  heart. 
For  us  the  Bible,  like  a  treasure  house, 
contains  this  seed.  ''Search  the  script- 
ures, for  In  them  ye  think  ye  have  eternal 
life,  and  these  are  they  which  bear  witness 
of  me."  Treat  this  book  reverently  then, 
for  it  holds  the  words  of  life,  the  truth 
concerning    Him    who    is    "  the  way,  the 


THE    SEED.  45 

truth,   and   the  Hfe,"   to  every  good   and 
honest  heart. 

Christ  Is  both  seed  and  Sower.  *'  He 
that  soweth  the  good  seed  is  the  Sou  of 
many  Matt.  13  \^^.  But  He  Is  also  the 
Word  of  truth,  the  holy  Logos,  the  per- 
fect expression  of  the  thought  of  God. 

''God  having  of  old  time  spoken  unto 
the  fathers  in  the  prophets  by  divers  por- 
tions and  in  divers  manners,  hath  at  the 
end  of  these  days  spoken  unto  us  In  His 
Son." 

God  hath  been  made  manifest  unto  us 
who  do  believe  in  Him.  Prophets  told 
us  the  truth  of  God ;  the  Son  revealed 
the  person  of  God.  They  knowing  only 
in  part,  could  reveal  only  In  part  ;  He 
knowing  the  truth  In  the  very  counsels  of 
the  Father  in  all  its  fullness,  uttered  truth 
in  all  its  greatness  and  wealth.  Com'Ing 
through  human  prophets  and  teachers  by 
human  language  and  symbols,  It  came 
slowly  by  changing  modes  and  with  vary- 
ing meaning.  Coming  by  a  Son,  yea  in  a 
Son,    who    bore   in    His   own   nature  the 


4-6  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

express  Image  of  the  Father,  the  manifes- 
tation of  the  truth  was  perfect,  complete 
and  unchanoreable. 

The  great  and  wide  universe,  with  its 
unnumbered  worlds,  with  all  its  infinite 
variety  and  wealth  of  life  and  beauty,  is 
but  the  incarnation  of  a  few  of  the  thouehts 
of  God.  All  the  tremendous  energy  man- 
ifested in  the  movements  of  the  worlds  of 
the  universe,  and  all  the  accuracy  dis- 
played in  their  perfect  order,  are  simply 
partial  expressions  of  the  energy  and 
accuracy  of  the  divine  Mind.  They  ought 
to  be,  and  are  becoming  more  and  more, 
the  illustrations  of  the  workino^s  of  that 
Being  whose  nature  is  truth.  They  are 
the  utterances  of  the  mind  of  God,  in  a 
language  we  only  partially  understand, 
and  at  the  best  we  can  read  from  them  a 
very  indefinite  knowledge  of  Jehovah. 
We  would  see,  and  God  would  have  us 
see,  a  grander  and  nearer,  a  richer  and 
plainer,  expression  of  Himself.  We 
needed  an  expression  of  our  God  that 
could    come    to    our    seared    consciences 


THE    SEED.  47 

with  the  voice  of  Hfe's  Omniscient  Judge, 
that  could  speak  to  our  sin-narrowed  souls 
with  the  expanding,  exalting  voice  of  eter- 
nal life,  that  could  speak  to  our  darkened 
hearts  with  the  voice  of  the  Father  of 
lights,  that  could  meet  our  repentance  with 
divine  forgiveness,  that  could  heal  human 
sorrow  with  the  compassion  of  a  holy 
comforter,  that  could  quicken  hope  by  a 
revelation  of  the  unseen  glories  of  God 
and  Heaven.  God  speaking  in  His  Son 
is  such  an  expression.  Christ  speaks 
God's  will,  but  It  is  by  speaking  God's 
nature.  He  is  the  express  image  of  the 
Father,  the  very  utterance  of  His  Being 
to  our  needy  human  race. 

This  living  Christ  is  the  power  within 
the  seed,  the  Word  within  the  word,  that 
breaks  the  husk  and  brines  forth  a  new 
life  and  growth  within  the  soul.  This 
divine  life  within  the  uttered  word  of 
truth,  when  It  falls  into  proper  soil,  will 
put  forth  energy  in  a  new  life  that  shall 
strike  Its  roots  ever  deeper  and  deeper, 
and   send  the  foliage  and  blossoms  and 


48  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

fruits  higher  and  higher  in  growth  towards 
Him  who  sowed  the  seed.  The  fault  of 
failure  to  produce  a  good  harvest  cannot 
be  in  the  sower  or  the  seed.  Indeed,  if 
you  scatter  good  seed  in  any  manner  upon 
soil  properly  prepared,  it  will  grow.  If 
failure  come  with  good  seed,  the  trouble 
is  in  the  soil  or  its  preparation.  The 
Master  illustrates  this  clearly  and  forcibly 
in  the  four  classes  of  hearers. 


FIRST  CLASS  OF  HEARERS. 

''  And  when  he  sowed,  some  fell  by  the 
wayside,  and  the  fozuls  came  a7id  devoured 
them  upy  (Heb.  2:1;  Acts  26:28  ;  Matt. 
22:5;  Isa.  53:1.) 

Christ's  disciples  were  too  familiar  with 
the  scene  immediately  around  them  to 
have  any  difficulty  in  understanding  the 
letter  of  the  parable,  but  they  seek  to 
know  its  deeper  meaning.  And  the  words, 
''who  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear  J' 
with  which  He  closed  the  parable,  must 
have  challenged  the  attention  of  the  most 
thouehtless,  while  It  was  a  direct  summons 
to  all  In  that  crowd  who  understood  Him, 
to  look  for  a  meaning  deeper  and  richer 
than  the  mere  picture  with  which  they 
were  all  familiar.  The  letter  of  the  para- 
ble is  easily  understood,  but  what  is  the 
spiritual  truth  it  holds  for  us  ? 

As  we  study  this  ''word  of  the  king- 
dom," let  us  try  to  catch  its  full  meaning. 


50  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

and  by  applying  Its  lessons  to  our  own 
lives,  give  the  **seed"  fullest  opportunity 
to  grow  even  to  an  hundred  fold  in  good 
and  honest  hearts. 

The  whole  field  was  sown,  but  in  Pales- 
tine, as  in  the  far  west  of  our  own  land, 
there  are  few  fences,  and  the  feet  of  many 
travelers  have  worn  a  hard  path  across  the 
ploughed  and  harrowed  surface.  The 
Master's  explanation  of  this  part  of  the 
parable  is,  '*  When  anyone  heareth  the 
word  of  the  kingdo7n,  and  understandeth 
it  not,  then  cometh  the  ivicked  one,  and 
catcheth  away  that  ivhich  was  sown  in  the 
heai^tr 

We  cannot  justly  make  our  ignorance  a 
reason  for  not  believing,  yet  if  we  cannot 
easily  understand  the  teachings  of  Christ 
we  are  very  apt  to  feel  ourselves  under  no 
obligation  to  give  them  any  further  atten- 
tion. Nor  have  we  any  right  to  make  the 
obscurity  of  the  word  and  the  difficulty  of 
our  surroundings  the  excuses  for  our  con- 
tinued neglect  of  duty.  Christ  shows 
here  the  fallacy  of  all  such  pleas  by  the 


SOME    FELL    liY     THE     WAYSIDE.  5  I 

expression  which  in  the  text  is  translated 
**  understandeth  it  not."  Literally,  it  is 
"inattention,"  neglecting  to  bring  together 
in  the  mind  for  careful  consideration  the 
truths  we  hear.  No  one  can  be  blamed  for 
not  understanding  a  subject  which  by 
actual,  careful  investigation  he  has  proved 
to  be  beyond  his  capacity ;  but  he  is 
deserving  of  censure  if  he  fails  to  under- 
stand a  matter  which  is  vital  to  him  sim- 
ply because  he  will  not  bring  his  mind  to 
attend  to  it. 

"  Then!'  and  not  till  then,  ''  covieth  the 
wicked  one,''  "  Satan,"  St.  Luke  says, 
''  and  catchcth  azvay  that  luhich  was  sozvn 
in  the  heart."  Originally  the  soil  was  all 
alike.  The  whole  field  was  well  ploughed 
and  harrowed,  and  the  soil  of  the  path  is 
now  as  fertile  as  any  other  part  of  the 
field. 

A  fertile  heart  may  become  like  a  hard 
path  under  a  long  procession  of  evil 
thoughts,  ungodly  wishes  and  sinful  deeds. 
Satan  cannot  steal  away  seed  that  is  cov- 
ered in  the  heart,  and  it  is  our  fault  if  the 


52  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

ground  is  so  hard  that  the  seed  can  find 
no  place  to  take  root.  It  is  our  fault  that 
we  give  no  attention,  that  we  do  not  care- 
fully examine  the  truths  of  life,  but  with- 
out thought  push  them  aside.  It  is  our 
fault  that,  while  hearing  with  the  ear,  we 
give  no  attention  with  the  heart.  Satan 
catches  away  only  that  which  is  left  ex- 
posed upon  the  surface. 

If  Christ  be  true,  these  teachings 
of  His  are  of  infinite  worth,  affecting  our 
life  here,  and  our  fate  for  all  eternity.  Is 
it  the  part  of  wisdom,  of  even  ordinary 
good  sense,  to  push  them  aside  without 
careful  examination  ?  Yet  many  have  no 
other  reason  than  ignorance  for  their  re- 
jection of  Christ.  Rejecting  the  deepest 
truths  and  noblest  gifts  of  life  without 
any  personal  examination  as  to  the  valid- 
ity of  testimony  or  credibility  of  witnesses. 
What  a  picture  this  is  of  many  hearers 
in  all  our  churches  !  They  come  with  the 
multitude  to  keep  holy-day,  but  the  seed 
falls  upon  inattentive  hearts,  as  rain  falls 
upon    the    paved    street.      Their    church- 


"SOME    FELL    BY    THE    WAYSIDE.  53 

going  Is  often  a  sort  of  weekly  opiate, 
with  which  to  quiet  the  conscience,  or  a 
mask  to  deceive  the  world,  and  sometimes 
themselves,  and  yet  with  an  unexpressed 
hope  that  God  will  count  their  church- 
going  as  a  favorable  Item  In  their  final 
account. 

St.  Luke  (12:13)  tells  of  such  a  hearer. 
Christ  had  been  preaching  to  the  people 
an  earnest  sermon  acralnst  all  forms  of 
hypocrisy,  and  showing  them  the  great 
value  of  a  soul,  at  the  same  time  promis- 
ing the  Holy  Spirit  to  help  them  In  all 
trials  and  sufferings  while  preaching  the 
truth.  "And  one  of  the  company  said  unto 
him,  Master,  speak  to  my  brother  that  he 
divide  the  Inheritance  with  me."  Evi- 
dently the  man  had  given  no  real  atten- 
tion to  the  sermon,  and  he  deserved  the 
severe  rebuke  he  received.  So  It  was  with 
Agrlppa,  when  Paul  sowed  the  truth  so 
faithfully,  the  seed  bounded  off  from  a 
hard  and  careless  heart. 

Occasionally  we  hear  people  say  they 
have  no  aptitude  for  religion.     What  will 


54  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

such  people  do  in  heaven,  where  every- 
thing is  rehgion  ?  Others  say  they  have 
no  interest  in  *'  church-work,"  in  other 
words,  they  do  not  have  any  interest  in  the 
work  which  the  church  has  undertaken  at 
the  command  of  Christ.  Will  such  peo- 
ple have  any  place  in  heaven,  where  the 
whole  life  is  a  special  service  under  the 
command  of  Christ  ?  These  people,  and 
they  are  many,  are  simply  hardening  the 
soil,  and  allowing  the  seed  to  die  without 
fruit.  .  Yet  the  Master  has  said,  "  Herein 
is  my  Father  glorified,  that  ye  bear  much 
fruit,  so  shall  ye  be  my  disciples." 

Sometimes  the  very  habits  of  what  is 
called  our  religious  life  become  a  mere 
''crust  of  formality,"  hard  paths  across 
the  heart.  Attendance  upon  the  ordinan- 
ces of  the  church  ought  to  lead  us  nearer 
to  God,  yet  how  often  while  the  body  is 
obedient  to  the  form  of  worship  the  mind 
is  far  away.  This  half-listening,  this  not 
attending  to  the  word,  is  fatal  to  any 
true  reception  of  the  truth,  and  only 
increases    the    difficulty    in    the    way    of 


**  SOME    FELL    BY    THE    WAYSIDE."        55 

growth.  More  and  more  becoming  inca- 
pable of  true  repentance,  such  people 
have  neither  care  nor  fear.  Their  condi- 
tion does  not  disturb  them,  for  sin  ha5  no 
deep  meaning  to  them.  They  know  in  a 
general  way  that  they  ought  to  prepare  to 
meet  their  God,  but  their  hearts  are  not 
stirred  with  the  thought  of  that  great  cer- 
tainty, and  they  are  apt  soon  to  grow 
indifferent  to  all  things  spiritual. 

A  man  gets  into  this  hardened  condi- 
tion, so  that  the  Gospel  message  has  no 
helpful  meaning  to  him,  only  because  he 
has  exposed  his  heart  as  a  common  road 
to  evil  influences.  He  listens  to  the  gos- 
pel without  objection,  it  may  be,  but  it 
arouses  no  personal  interest,  for  it  has 
fallen  on  a  hardened  surface.  However 
he  may  apply  it  to  others,  to  himself  it  is 
only  a  social  or  intellectual  culture,  or  a 
listening  out  of  curiosity,  or  for  appear- 
ance sake.  The  Bible  does  not  take  hold 
of  his  thouehts  as  his  ledg^er  does.  Sin 
and  righteousness  are  not  nearly  so  vital 
to  him  as  the  daily  stock  report,  the  con- 


56  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

ditlon  of  his  bank,  the  prospect  of  harvest, 
or  his  physical  health  or  comfort.  The 
good  soil  may  be  there,  but  it  is  hard. 
While  gracious  influences  rain  upon  it, 
they  run  off  as  from  a  hardened  path,  and 
the  first  hour's  march  of  the  old  intruders 
will  make  it  as  hard  and  barren  as  ever. 
The  truth  may  be  scattered  by  loving- 
hands  thickly  upon  it,  but  winged  day- 
dreams and  wicked  thoughts  steal  many, a 
holy  seed,  and  the  heavy  tread  of  evil 
passions  and  sinful  habits  soon  crushes 
the  others  to  their  death. 

The  farmer  does  not  blame  the  birds  of 
the  air  for  following  the  instincts  of  their 
nature  in  stealing  his  grain  so  much  as 
he  does  the  trespassers  who  have  worn  the 
path  across  his  rich  and  well-ploughed 
fields.  Too  often  the  soil  in  which  the 
word  of  God  should  have  been  received, 
and  where  it  would  have  taken  root,  is 
allowed  to  become  the  highway  of  the 
soul's  greatest  enemies.  To  such  a  hearer 
the  command  is :  submit  yourself  to  the 
deep  ploughing  of  the  Spirit  and  the  law. 


''SOME    FELL    BY    THE    WAYSIDE."        57 

and  when  the  heart  Is  thus  broken  up, 
scatter  in  it  the  seeds  of  truth.  P'or  if 
the  Holy  Spirit  has  deeply  furrowed  the 
heart,  we  know  that  the  divine  Sower  has 
scattered  there  seeds  of  vast  spiritual  en- 
dowments, and  He  who  sowed  the  seed 
p-ives  the  sunshine  and  the  rain,  the  dew 

o 

and  the  shade  of  night,  all  in  proper  meas- 
ure for  a  full  and  perfect  harvest.  But 
it  is  ours  to  keep  away  all  evil  birds,  and 
to  see  that  the  soil  is  not  tramped  so  hard 
that  the  seed  can  find  no  place  to  grow. 

This  first  part  of  the  parable  ought  to 
touch  keenly  every  hearer  of  the  word. 
Is  your  heart's  soil  thoroughly  prepared 
to  receive  the  falling  seed,  or  is  there 
across  it  a  well  tramped  path  of  inatten- 
tion, careless  listening,  irreverence,  any 
evil  habit  of  mind  or  body  ?  Remember, 
there  is  one  watching  to  steal  away  the 
seed  that  falls  upon  any  spot  that  is  not 
prepared  for  its  reception.  When  you 
hear  and  yet  neglect  the  word,  you  prac- 
tically throw  it  to  Satan.  When  we  think 
of  this,  and  remember  how  little  of  the 


58  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

word  we  carry  away  from  God's  house  and 
from  our  daily  study  of  His  book,  is  it 
any  wonder  that  so  many  who  hear  the 
Hfe-giving  word  bring  forth  no  fruit? 

Do  not  blame  surroundine  circumstan- 
ces,  household  cares,  and  strong  tempta- 
tions, for  stealing  away  the  seed  ;  but  put 
the  truth  so  deeply  into  your  life  that  none 
will  be  left  upon  the  surface  for  these 
hungry  birds  to  feed  upon. 

We  all  constantly  experience  a  fading 
of  good  impressions  because  we  leave 
them  upon  a  hardened  surface  where  they 
cannot  grow,  instead  of  covering  them 
with  prayer,  and  cultivating  them  by  an 
active  pursuit  of  the  duties  they  inculcate. 
To  seize  and  use  every  good  thing, 
whether  it  be  impression,  thought,  or 
opportunity  to  bless  others,  is  the  only  sure 
way  of  getting  for  ourselves  its  harvest  of 
blessing.  Sometimes  amid  the  darkness 
of  a  midnight  storm,  the  vivid  lightning 
gives  an  instant  view  of  all  the  surround- 
ing landscape,  and  shows  the  path  from 
which  we  have  wandered.     So  there  occa- 


SOME    FELL    BY    THE    WAYSIDE.  59 

sionally  flashes  across  the  mind  a  vivid 
view  of  truth  that  quickens  faith,  awak- 
ens high  aspirations,  rouses  the  will  to 
overthrow  some  habit  of  sin,  stimulates 
to  renewed  consecration  of  life,  and  shows 
the  path  of  duty.  Why  does  this  so 
quickly  vanish  ?  Because  we  give  it  no 
hearty  invitation  to  remain,  no  home  to 
live  in,  no  duty  to  perform.  We  receive 
It  without  attention.  And  yet  It  Is  possi- 
ble for  us  so  to  receive  these  occasional 
flashes  of  good  as  to  have  them  increase 
to  a  frequency  that  will  make  our 
whole  life  a  bright  day  of  light  and  bless- 


mor. 


Strong  graces,  like  strong  powers  of 
mind  and  body,  require  constant  exercise. 
Inaction  is  certain  death  to  them.  As 
intellectual  idleness  means  mental  famine, 
so  Idle  Christian  Is  synonymous  with  dying 
Christian.  All  graces  have  their  Infancy, 
a  seed  time,  when  life  is  just  beginning, 
and  their  way  to  full  growth  and  fruitful- 
ness  Is  through  exercise  and  constant 
watchfulness. 


6o  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

Yet  how  many  are  never  strong  Chris- 
tians because  they  are  ever  waiting  and 
wishing  for  strong  graces,  instead  of  cul- 
tivating what  they  have  to  their  fullest 
growth  and  greatest  strength.  Every  true 
Christian  has  within  him  the  grrowinor  seed 
of  a  perfect  life.  If  the  full  harvest  does 
not  come,  it  is  not  the  fault  of  the  perfect 
seed  or  the  divine  Sower.  How  many 
turn  from  the  sanctuary  every  Sabbath 
day  without  profit  from  the  service,  because 
they  hear  without  attention.  They  receive 
an  impression  which  they  know  should  be 
immediately  put  into  practice,  yet  it  is 
neglected  until  even  the  memory  of  it  is 
gone.  There  are  others  so  thoroughly 
selfish  and  vain  as  to  have  no  spot  in  the 
heart  where  seed  can  grow.  It  falls  upon 
them  as  upon  others,  but  bounds  off  as 
from  a  hard  sidewalk.  If  they  ever  for- 
get themselves  long  enough  to  think  of 
the  truth,  it  is  to  blame  the  birds  for  steal- 
ing away  the  seed.  They  forget  that  if 
Satan  had  not  taken  away  the  truth  from 
them,   the  incessant   tramp  of  their  own 


''SOME    FELL    BY    THE    WAYSIDE."        6l 

vain  conceits  and  selfish  gratifications 
would  soon  have  crushed  it  to  death. 

Too  many  people  live  with  the  heart 
unfenced.  It  is  a  public  common,  stand- 
ing open  with  loud  invitation  to  all  trav- 
elers to  walk  across,  or  even  camp  within. 
It  has  no  sacred  place,  no  holy  of  holies, 
where  only  the  great  High  Priest  may 
enter.  Instead  of  jealously  guarding  every 
impression,  the  life  Is  left  open  to  all  the 
vile  seeds  that  float  in  the  social  atmos- 
phere. Seeds  whose  fruits  are  envy,  anger, 
suspicion,  sensuality,  and  all  manner  of 
uncharltableness.  Thus,  Instead  of  care- 
fully loosening  the  soil  whenever  it  has 
become  hardened  by  the  long-continued 
tramp  of  a  bad  habit,  they  allow  seed  to 
fall  upon  a  surface  entirely  unprepared, 
only  to  die  or  be  stolen  by  the  enemy. 

How  often  we  should  be  ashamed  and 
self-condemned  if  we  could  gather  up  the 
truths  we  have  lost  bv  inattention,  and  see 
them  in  their  origin,  their  present  mean- 
ing, the  fruits  they  would  have  produced, 
their   influence   upon   all   our  future  life, 


62  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

their  fitness  to  prepare  us  for  the  recep- 
tion of  other  truths,  and  then  contrast 
them  with  the  things  to  which  we  did  give 
our  attention.  Truth  driven  away  by 
some  selfish  thought.  God-given  beauty 
refused  for  ashes  of  earth.  A  growing 
seed  of  priceless  worth  rejected  for  seed 
of  thorns  and  weeds. 

It  may  be  that  some  good  seeds  have 
fallen  on  your  heart  in  childhood  before 
the  hard  path  was  worn,  that  would  spring 
towards  the  sun  if  you  would  but  break 
the  hard  crust  that  covers  them. 

A  visitor  to  a  prison  saw  there  a  woman 
charged  with  the  murder  of  her  child. 
EVery  effort  was  made  to  arouse  her  to 
a  sense  of  her  guilt,  but  nothing  pierced 
her  hardness.  The  visitor  was  frequently 
at  the  prison,  and  his  ministry  was  received 
by  all  save  this  one.  Passing  one  day  by 
a  nursery,  he  saw  in  the  hot-house  some 
common  garden  flowers.  He  knew  that 
the  childhood  of  this  woman  had  been 
passed  in  the  country,  and  trusted  that 
her  girl    nature    had   known    a   love    for 


"  SOME    FELL    BY    THE    WAYSIDE."        63 

flowers.  He  purchased  a  bouquet  and 
took  it  to  the  prison.  Going  into  the  cell, 
he  placed  the  flowers  and  a  copy  of  the 
gospel  of  St.  John  on  the  little  iron  table, 
and  went  out  into  the  hall  where  he  could 
see  and  not  be  seen.  The  prisoner 
soon  came  to  examine  what  had  been 
given  her.  Through  the  grated  door  the 
visitor  saw  her  look  at  the  book  and 
drop  it  on  the  floor.  The  flowers  she 
touched  and  smelled.  Memory  began 
to  do  its  work,  and  her  face  was  soon 
buried  among  the  flowers.  The  tears 
came,  and  there  upon  her  knees,  with  her 
head  and  hands  upon  the  table,  she  went 
back  again  to  her  innocent  childhood  in 
her  country  home.  The  snow  and  cold 
outside  were  changed  to  summer  sunshine. 
The  hard,  sin-burnt  heart  was  aglow  with 
love  for  the  mother  watching  from  the 
home  window.  The  little  fingers  were 
busy  plucking  flowers  in  the  old  home 
garden.  The  hard  crust  was  broken,  and 
the  seeds  that  fell  on  the  child's  heart  so 
long  ago  are  now  blossoming  and  bearing 


64  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

fruit  in  the  reformed,  regenerated  woman's 
life.  Many  a  one  whom  we  call  hardened 
might  become  a  fruitful  Christian  if  once 
the  crust  were  broken.  The  Spirit  can 
plough,  and  loving  hands  can  sow  the 
seed.  Let  the  seed  be  ever  falling,  for 
we  know  not  when  the  Spirit  is  at  work 
in  another's  heart,  and  some  seed  may  find 
a  loosened,  fertile  spot  in  which  to  grow. 


SECOND    CLASS   OF   HEARERS. 


"  The  Lord  is  nigh  unto  them  that  are  of  a  broken  heart, 
and  saveth  such  as  be  of  a  contrite  spirit."     Fs.  34:  18. 

"  We  have  the  heavenly  assurance  that  the  path  of  the 
just  is  to  shine  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day.  But 
this  blessed  truth  involves  its  opposite,  that  the  path  of  the 
wicked  must  grow  darker  and  darker  unto  the  total  night, 

unless  he  give  heed  to  the  voice  which  calls  him  out 

of  this  darkness,  and  turn  to  the  light  which  is  ever  striving 
to  illumine  it." 

Guesses  at   Truth. 


SECOND  CLASS  OF   HEARERS. 

''  Some  fell  upon  stony  places,  where  they 
had  not  much  earth:  and forthzvith  they 
sprang  2Lp,  because  they  had  no  deepness  of 
earth;  and  when  the  sun  was  up,  they 
were  scorched,  and  becatise  they  had  no  root 
they  ivithered  azvay!'     St.  Matt.  13:  5,  6. 

*'  They  on  the  rock  are  they,  which,  when 
they  hear,  receive  the  word  with  joy  ;  and 
these  have  no  root,  ivhich  for  a  time  believe, 
and  in  time  of  temptation  fall  away  T  St. 
Luke  8:  13. 

By  a  comparison  between  St.  Matthew 
and  St.  Luke  we  discover  what  is  meant 
by  ''stony  places"  and  ''rock."  Not  a 
spot  in  the  field  where  stones  lie  thickly 
upon  the  surface,  but  where  a  large  rock 
lies  beneath  a  shallow  covering  of  earth. 

The  field  appeared  to  be  all  alike  until 
the  path  was  worn.  Rocks  could  not  be 
seen.  The  seed  is  scattered  over  the 
whole  field  and,  save  upon  the  path,  takes 


68  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

root  and  grows.  The  summer  sun  gets 
higher  in  the  heavens  every  day,  and  sends 
his  hot  rays  down  upon  the  grain.  The 
path  is  bare  and  hard,  but  elsewhere  over 
all  the  field  the  grain  has  taken  root  and 
is  growing  vigorously.  What  a  prospect 
for  the  Autumn  !  The  soil  is  fertile.  It 
contains  every  element  necessary  to  pro- 
duce a  full  and  abundant  harvest.  Lying 
about  the  roots  of  the  grain  are  stores  of 
life  to  paint  the  leaves,  strengthen  the 
stalk,  and  fill  its  treasury  with  golden 
grain.  The  sun  in  the  heavens  pumps 
these  elements  of  life  from  the  earth 
through  the  roots  to  every  part  of  leaf 
and  stalk.  The  higher  the  plant  grows, 
the  higher  into  the  heavens  the  sun  climbs, 
that  he  may  send  increasing  force  to  do 
this  all-important  work  of  developing  the 
whole  life  of  the  field  to  its  utmost  capa- 
bility. But  as  the  weeks  go  by  we  notice 
here  and  there  a  fading  of  the  rich  hue  of 
health.  The  green  turns  to  yellow.  The 
leaves  curl  downwards  as  if  striving  to 
avoid  the  gaze  of  the  sun,  and  in  a  little 


''SOME    FELL    UPON    A    ROCK."  69 

while  these  spots  are  dead.  Why?  The 
grain  grew,  sending  roots  downward  and 
stalks  upward.  The  roots  collected  the 
life  from  the  soil,  and  the  sun  pumped 
that  life  up  through  the  plant.  After  a 
time  the  roots  had  drawn  all  the  life  out 
of  the  soil,  and  were  creeping  along  the 
hard  surface  of  the  rock,  vainly  striving 
by  every  crevice  to  get  through  to  the 
moist  earth  below.  Inexorably  the  sun 
kept  on  at  his  work.  His  office  was  not 
the  preparation  of  the  soil,  but  the  draw- 
ing from  the  soil  of  nourishment  for  the 
plant  that  must  bear  the  grain.  The  roots 
are  doing  their  best  to  supply  all  that  the 
growing  life  of  the  plant  calls  for,  but  they 
cannot  feed  on  the  rock.  The  sun  keeps 
on  pumping  from  plant  to  fruit,  from  roots 
to  plant.  So  the  roots  must  now  surren- 
der their  life  to  feed  the  plant.  Nor  does 
the  sun  stop  there.  Higher  and  higher  he 
climbs.  He  has  the  same  work  to  do  for 
all  the  myriad  forms  of  earthly  life.  If 
he  should  stop,  they  would  die.  Hence, 
when  the  life  is  all  drawn  out  of  the  soil, 


/O  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

the  roots  must  give  up  their  Hfe,  and  then 
the  plant  itself  must  give  forth  its  strength 
and  die. 

How  close  the  analogy  between  this  law 
of  plant  life  and  the  law  of  human  life  ? 
Whatever  is  superficial  is  apt  to  be  trans- 
itory. Shallowness  quickly  puts  forth  all 
its  energy  and  dies.  Not  having  much 
root,  it  exhibits  all  its  growth  and  strength 
upon  the  surface.  Those  who  have  little 
knowledge  are  usually  forward  and  noisy ; 
they  have  little  of  the  joy  of  the  true  stu- 
dent, whose  greatest  pleasure  is  in  the 
silent  companionship  with  knowledge,  the 
deeply-rooted  life  that  cannot  be  seen  by 
others.  How  little  of  the  deep  and  abid- 
ing joy  of  a  symmetrical  Christian  does 
that  soul  know  whose  life  is  in  what  he 
does  and  says  before  the  world,  more  than 
in  what  he  is  before  God. 

There  seems  to  be  an  improvement, 
however,  in  the  condition  of  this  class 
over  the  first  class.  There  is  here  some 
life.  In  the  first  class,  the  seed  did  not 
even  take  root.      Here  it  takes  root,  orows 


''SOME    FELL    UTON    A    ROCK."  71 

quickly,  as  with  special  fertility  of  soil, 
and  promises  a  large  harvest.  But  we 
soon  discover  that  this  improvement  is 
but  specious,  and  that  the  rapid  growth 
upward  is  from  lack  of  room  to  grow 
downward.  There  it  was  hardened  soil 
above,  here  it  is  rock  below.  That  had 
been  made  hard  lately,  and  is  upon  the 
surface  where  you  may  see  it  ;  this  is 
far  enough  below  to  deceive  you.  Yet 
there  is  a  real  advance,  for  there  the  seed 
had  no  life  ;  here  it  has  been  received  and 
is  growing.  You  may  break  up  the  path 
only  to  find  a  rock  beneath  and  the  seed 
all  blown  away  or  stolen,  and  the  Spirit 
can  break  up  the  stony  heart  as  easily  as 
the  hard  one. 

Failure  in  life  is  not  among  wayside 
hearers  only;  but  many  who  hear  ''gladly," 
fail  to  bring  forth  the  real  harvest  of 
life,  yea,  fail  to  live  until  harvest  time 
comes.  They  are  Inconsiderate  and  im- 
pulsive, as  the  members  of  the  preceding 
class  were  Inattentive  and  careless.  The 
"joy  of  the  Holy  Ghost"  Is  unknown  to 


72  PARABLE  <0F    THE    SOWER. 

them  because  they  have  ''no  root  In  them- 
selves." There  may  be  here  and  there  a 
stalk  that  is  able  to  get  a  single  root  over 
the  edge  of  the  rock,  and  thus  live  a 
sickly  life  even  to  the  time  of  ingathering; 
but  its  harvest  is  puny,  the  grains  are  all 
shriveled  through  lack  of  life's  vigor,  and 
when  at  last  it  falls  before  the  reaper,  no 
golden  seeds  roll  out  into  the  earth  to 
grow  to  another  harvest. 

Our  Saviour  interprets  the  meaning  of 
this  class  as  ''  he  that  hearcth  the  woi^d  and 
anon  with  joy  receiveth  it,  yet  hath  he  not 
root  in  himself,  but  dtcreth  for  awhile  ; 
for  whejt  tribulation  or  persectition  aris- 
eth  becaiise  of  the  zvord,  by  and  by  he  is 
offended y 

The  seed  here  is  the  same  as  in  the 
former  case,  the  ''word  of  the  kingdom." 
Those  upon  whom  it  falls  are  attentive ; 
they  are  interested ;  they  receive  the  seed 
and  cover  it  into  their  hearts,  where  it 
takes  root  and  grows  rapidly.  In  times  of 
special  interest,  when  many  are  receiving 
the  word  and  accepting  it  openly,  this  part 


"SOME    FELL    UPON    A    ROCK."  73 

of  the  parable  Is  apt  to  be  too  frequently 
illustrated.  Excitable  natures  are  easily 
stirred,  and  receive  the  seed  without  due 
preparation  of  heart.  They  accept  the 
gospel  with  joy,  and  go  forth  valiantly, 
but  they  have  not  counted  the  cost.  The 
warfare  Is  a  long  one,  with  an  enemy  rich 
In  resources  and  of  skill  unequalled.  Their 
earnestness  Is  volatile,  quickly  noticed, 
and  soon  loses  Its  strength.  They  are 
seeking  their  own  happiness  rather  than  a 
change  of  character.  They  run  swiftly 
while  the  street  Is  smoothly  paved  and 
many  are  near  to  applaud;  but  ''by  and 
by"  the  way  Is  rough,  the  special  Interest 
Is  over,  and  the  crowds  have  gone  to  other 
excitements. 

Tribulation  and  persecution,  which 
ought  to  strengthen  Christian  character, 
prove  to  this  class  a  stumbling  block  over 
which  they  fall.  They  have  put  on  the 
robes  of  disciples  and  easily  use  their 
speech,  but  In  character  there  Is  no  change. 
The  old  heart  Is  still  there  under  a  new 
covering. 


74  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

They  receive  the  word  with  joy,  but 
their  joy  is  thoughtless,  a  stirring  of  the 
emotions,  not  the  peace  of  a  changed 
nature.  Their  heart  has  been  touched 
only  upon  the  surface,  not  smitten  with 
that  blow  of  Jehovah  that  makes  a  stream 
of  living  water  flow  as  from  the  cleft  rock, 
full  of  life-giving  power  to  the  end  of  life's 
journey. 

For  a  time  they  "did  run  well,"  but 
after  awhile  they  are  missed  occasionally 
from  the  prayer-meeting,  they  are  less 
active  in  the  Sunday  School.  For  a  time 
they  rejoiced  to  be  able  to  testify  to  the 
world  that  they  were  Christ's.  After  the 
time  of  special  interest,  when  persecution 
arose  because  of  the  word,  the  sneer  and 
laugh  blowing  like  a  hot,  withering  wind 
upon  them,  they  drooped  and  died.  For 
a  while  Sabbaths  were  sacred  times,  and 
the  services  of  God's  house  a  pleasure 
and  a  profit.  But  temptation  came,  and 
the  time  of  worship  was  neglected  more 
and  more  for  the  opportunity  it  gave  to 
attend    to    some    little    matter    forgotten 


**SOME    FELL    UPON    A    ROCK.'*  75 

during  the  week.  Soon  the  duties  of  the 
week  that  with  a  Httle  stretch  of  con- 
science mioht  be  called  not  sinful,  are 
postponed  until  the  leisure  of  Sunday. 
Other  desecrations  of  God's  chosen  holy 
day  follow,  and  the  surface  religion  is  soon 
rubbed  off.  Thus  the  soul  is  once  more 
put  under  obligation  to  sin.  Such  Chris- 
tian character  is  shallow.  The  roots  have 
come  to  the  rock,  and  the  soil  is  nearly 
all  exhausted  of  life.  Yet  they  are  the 
people  who  are  the  quickest  to  resent  any 
hint  that  they  are  in  danger.  They  are 
only  not  narrow-minded  ;  they  are  liberal. 
They  are  not  narrow  Christians,  only  shal- 
low ones.  They  will  soon  be  as  bare  of 
all  Christian  beauty  and  fruitfulness  as  the 
withered  spot  in  yonder  field  of  grain. 

''  By  and  by  they  are  offended."  Yes, 
they  are  easily  offended.  While  the  sense 
of  the  parable  is  ''by  and  by  they  sin," 
yet  in  a  commoner  sense  they  are  offended. 
They  complain  more  than  any  other  class 
within  the  church.  The  church  is  not 
managed  properly,  the  singing  does  not 


76  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

suit  them,  the  preacher  is  too  pointed,  the 
ushers  are  too  slow,  they  do  not  beHeve  in 
missions.  They  are  offended  because 
some  of  the  Bible  doctrines  stand  un- 
changeably before  them  with  stern  judg- 
ment upon  their  lives.  All  these  com- 
plaints are  mere  excuses  for  their  own 
superficial  lives.  Their  religion  is  a  mat- 
ter of  feeling,  not  of  character.  Feeling 
is  transient;  character  is  permanent. 
When  that  which  aroused  the  feelinor  is 

o 

gone,  it  subsides  until  moved  by  some  new 
influence.  Such  religion  is  to  true  disci- 
pleship  what  a  review,  or  a  formal  salute, 
is  to  a  battle.  Such  hearing  of  the  truth 
is  playing  with  a  divine  gift,  a  mere  wast- 
ing of  heavenly,  life-giving  seed. 

The  members  of  this  class  are  guided 
more  by  the  judgments  of  others  than  by 
their  own  consciences.  Their  religion  is 
a  possession,  not  a  being.  They  have 
''got  religion"  more  than  they  have 
become  religious.  Having  no  root  of  life 
in  themselves,  but  only  in  their  surround- 
ings, they  are  necessarily  temporary  Chris- 


"SOME    FELL    UPON    A    ROCK."  "]"] 

tians,  so  that  when  a  change  comes  in  their 
surrounding  circumstances  it  changes  their 
whole  life. 

Not  only  do  excitable  ones  belong  to 
this  class  who  receive  the  seed  and  so 
quickly  let  it  die,  but  many  a  calm  and 
quiet  one,  listening  thoughtfully  Sunday 
after  Sunday  to  divine  truth,  receives  it 
only  so  far  as  to  produce  a  fair  external 
life.  There  is  no  change  of  heart.  His 
character  remains  the  same.  In  one  class 
of  these  shallow  hearers,  feeling  is  the 
only  soil  into  which  the  seed  is  received  ; 
while  in  this  class,  the  intellect  is  all  that 
is  converted.  One  is  heat  without  light, 
the  heart's  feelings  running  swiftly  in  a 
new  road  without  the  guidance  of  the 
head  ;  the  other  is  the  head-light  pointing 
in  the  right  direction  and  lighting  the  way, 
but  not  advancing.  In  both  there  is  soil 
enough  to  receive  the  seed,  but  not  enough 
to  sustain  the  full  and  continued  growth. 
Under  strong  temptation  they  will  fall 
away. 

Even  then  the  one  will  strive  to  retain 

8 


yS  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

his  pleasure  in  christian  things,  and  the 
other  will  try  to  hold  on  to  his  outward 
christian  life  long  after  the  roots  are  dead. 
Satan  stole  the  seed  of  life  from  the  way- 
side hearer  without  any  trouble,  but  in 
this  class  he  has  to  make  some  effort  to 
destroy  it.  He  witnesses  the  rapid  growth, 
and  tests  it  to  see  whether  it  be  deeply 
rooted.  He  sends  temptations,  doubts, 
and  causes  of  offense.  The  heat  increases. 
A  parley  is  held  with  the  tempter.  The 
soul  sins,  and  christian  character  begins 
to  wither.  The  more  intensely  the  sun 
pours  his  heat  upon  a  plant  deeply  rooted 
in  good  soil,  the  more  rapid  and  fruitful 
the  growth.  The  tropics  receive  the  most 
direct  rays  of  the  sun,  but  are  ever  the 
richest  in  flower  and  fruit.  Temptations 
are  blessings  if  you  endure  them,  and  the 
true  Christian  is  always  strengthened  by 
conflict.  Even  when  he  falls  before  any 
particular  temptation  he  is  humbled,  and 
thus  lifted  up.  (I  Kings  21:  29;  I  Peter 
5:6;  Jas.  4:10.)  When  successfully 
resisted,     temptations    and    persecutions 


"  SOME    FELL    UPON    A    ROCK."  79 

Strengthen  and  develop  the  christian  Hfe 
by  compelling  it  to  strike  its  roots  ever 
deeper  and  deeper  into  the  soil. 

If  the  whole  heart  be  changed,  and 
thoroughly  prepared  for  the  growth  of 
christian  character,  the  hot  sun  of  oppo- 
sition will  only  compel  it  to  grow  more 
rapidly.  But  if  the  roots  have  but  little 
soil,  and  the  heart's  centre  be  a  rock,  the 
growth  will  be  rapid  enough,  but  death 
will  come  to  one  after  another  of  the 
fruits  till  all  are  dead  before  ripened.  The 
same  persecution  that  sent  the  true  Chris- 
tians to  the  stake,  sent  the  shallow  ones 
to  reinforce  the  enemies  of  Christ. 

Many  a  man  who  has  been  a  pronounced 
Christian  and  is  now  as  avowed  in  his 
infidelity,  is  an  illustration  of  this  part  of 
the  parable.  He  boldly  affirms  that  he 
has  tried  Christianity,  was  sincere  in  his 
practice  of  it,  and  it  is  a  failure.  If  he 
would  study  his  case  more  closely  and 
logically,  he  would  see  that  he  is  proclaim- 
inor   his   own   shallowness.      He  failed   to 

o 

prepare  the  soil  properly  for  the  new  seed 


8o  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

of  life,  and  the  rock  beneath  the  surface 
prevented  the  permanent  growth  of  a 
christian  character.  The  rapid  growth  of 
so  divine  a  plant  soon  exhausted  all  the 
real  strength  of  so  shallow  a  soil,  and 
naught  was  left  It  but  to  die.  The  seed 
was  God-given  and  perfect.  He,  not  the 
seed,  was  the  failure. 

There  are  many  who  come  to  Christ  as 
the  young  man  who  had  kept  all  the  com- 
mandments from  his  youth,  but  had  In  his 
heart  a  solid  rock  of  avarice  which  he 
would  not  break  up  even  for  eternal 
life. 

The  "  rock  "  of  selfishness  which  is  in 
nearly  every  human  heart  Is  a  great  obsta- 
cle to  the  growth  of  Christ's  kingdom. 
You  offer  all  to  Christ.  Do  you  mean  it  ? 
Has  the  Spirit  thoroughly  ploughed  your 
heart  ?  Not  merely  made  tender  your 
feelings,  and  won  the  consent  of  your 
mind  ;  but  has  he  thoroughly  sub-soiled 
your  heart,  so  that  there  Is  no  rock  left  ? 
Are  you  ready  to  let  your  christian  char- 
acter grow  everywhere,   even  if  its  roots 


''SOME    FELL    UPON    A    ROCK."  8l 

crush  out  every  pet  sin  and  doubtful 
pleasure  ? 

Foolish  vanity  stands  like  a  great  stone 
at  the  door  of  many  hearts,  otherwise 
good  and  honest.  They  are  proud  of 
what  they  appear  to  be  ;  they  boast  of 
what  they  can  do.  If  the  seed  takes  root 
in  them,  it  quickly  strikes  the  rock  of  self, 
and  then  through  lack  of  soil  their  relig- 
ious life  dies.  The  sun  does  not  kill  the 
plant.  It  dies  only  because  the  roots  can- 
not find  nourishment.  Temptation  and 
persecution  and  tribulation  do  not  kill  the 
christian  life  ;  they  are  only  the  occasion, 
not  the  cause  of  death.  Death  comes  to 
a  christian  life  only  because  there  is  no 
soil  for  its  roots,  no  food  for  its  suste- 
nance— it  is  starved  to  death. 

Notice  that  the  members  of  this  class 
are  all  professing  Christians,  either  in  the 
church  or  out  of  it.  The  first  class  did 
not  even  start.  This  class  started  joyfully, 
ran  well  during  the  time  of  excitement, 
then  withdrew  and  died.  Their  weakness 
was  radical — a  root  weakness.     The  heart, 


82  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

the  very  core  of  life,  instead  of  being  full 
of  divine  seed,  was  entirely  hard.  The 
old  selfishness  had  never  been  properly 
ploughed  up,  hence  their  sorrow  for  sin 
was  more  a  matter  of  pride  than  of  repent- 
ance. They  were  sorry  for  the  evil  of 
their  lives  because  of  the  unpleasant  con- 
sequences they  feared,  and  their  humility 
was  a  temporary  subjugation  of  the  feel- 
ings, not  a  heart's  lowly  sense  of  unwor- 
thiness.  The  great  mistake  of  multitudes 
within  the  church,  and  a  larger  number  of 
judges  without  It,  lies  In  their  considering 
Christianity  a  mere  matter  of  sentiment 
or  feeling.  The  plain  teaching  of  every 
part  of  this  parable,  the  unmistakable 
declaration  of  Christ,  is  that  the  christian 
life  comes  from  a  divine  birth  within  the 
soul,  which  must  transform,  by  gradual  but 
complete  renewal,  the  whole  nature  of  a 
man.  It  Is  not  a  possession,  or  an  opinion, 
or  even  a  belief,  but  a  living,  growing 
character. 


THIRD    CLASS   OF   HEARERS. 


"Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  first 
and  greatest  commandment."     Matt.  22:  37. 

"  Full  seldom  doth  a  man  repent,  or  use 

Both  grace  and  will  to  pick  the  vicious  quitch 
Of  blood  and  custom  wholly  out  of  him, 

And  make  it  clean,  and  plant  himself  afresh." 

Tennyson, 

"All  virtue  and  goodness  tend  to  make  men  powerful  in 
this  world;  but  they  who  aim  at  the  power  have  not  the 
virtue.  Again,  virtue  is  its  own  reward,  and  brings  with  it 
the  truest  and  highest  pleasures;  but  they  who  cultivate  it 
for  the  pleasure-sake  are  selfish,  not  religious,  and  will  never 
have  the  pleasure,  because  they  never  can  have  the  virtue." 

J.  H.  Newman. 


THIRD  CLASS  OF  HEARERS. 

''  Afid  some  fell  among'  thorns,  and  the 
thorns  sprung  2tp  a7id  choked  them!' 

Here,  again,  the  seed  is  the  same  as 
that  which  has  been  scattered  upon  the 
path  and  upon  the  stony  places.  This  is 
a  part  of  the^  same  field,  but  the  soil  is 
not  tramped,  and  no  rocks  are  there.  Yet 
when  the  good  grain  comes  up,  noxious 
weeds  are  growing  as  thickly  as  the  grain. 

The  soil  was  fertile,  and  the  ploughing 
had  been  deep  and  thorough,  but  the  old 
roots  had  not  been  removed,  hence  they 
grew  up  rapidly  with  the  good  seed  and 
choked  it  They  drew  the  strength  from 
the  soil,  and  shaded  the  good  grain  from 
the  sun. 

In  the  first  case  the  seed  did  not  have 
any  life  in  the  soil.  In  the  second  it  grew 
for  a  short  time,  then  died.  Here  it 
retains  the  name  to  live,  but  brings  no 
fruit  to  perfection.     The  seed  is  received 


86  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

Into  rich  soil,  is  covered,  and  puts  forth  a 
good  growth,  and  finding  no  rocks,  it  roots 
deeply.  Yet,  after  a  few  weeks,  if  you 
will  walk  along  the  hardened  path  from 
which  the  grain  has  all  been  stolen,  you 
will  see  occasional  barren  spots,  with  only 
the  dead  stalks  remaining^  to  mark  the 
rocky  place  ;  and  here  and  there,  also,  you 
will  notice  large  patches  of  grain  mingled 
with  thorns,  cockle,  mustarcl  or  whatever 
may  be  the  besetting  thorn,  or  weed,  of 
that  particular  region. 

The  hearer  of  this  class  is  not  stupid, 
nor  hardened  as  in  the  first  class,  nor  one 
of  mere  feeling,  as  in  the  second  class. 
In  the  first,  there  was  no  growing  life.  In 
the  second,  growth  near  the  surface  (both 
above  and  below),  no  high  reaching  fruits 
above,  because  there  was  no  deeply-rooted 
life  below.  In  the  third  we  find  the  roots 
striking  deeply  into  fertile  soil  and  a  rapid 
growth  upward,  but  thorns  are  growing 
thickly  with  the  grain  The  birds  could 
not  steal  the  seed,  for  it  was  received  into 
the  soil  and  covered.     The  sun  could  not 


"SOME    FELL    AMONG    THORNS."  ^J 

wither  it,  for  the  roots  found  no  rock. 
Why,  then,  has  no  fruit  come  to  perfection  ? 
The  word  has  fallen  upon  lives  thor- 
oughly ploughed,  no  rocks  are  there,  and 
no  paths  are  yet  worn  across  the  heart. 
They  keep  the  word  through  all  trials  and 
difficulties,  but  they  keep  it  with  an  in- 
creasing growth  of  weeds.  When  the 
heart  was  broken  up,  the  old  thorn-roots 
were  not  killed,  and  now  they  are  growing 
more  rapidly  than  the  good  grain. 

It  is  another  illustration  of  a  heart  try- 
ing to  serve  both  God  and  mammon,  try- 
ing to  be  both  religious  and  worldly,  with 
the  hope  of  getting  the  best  out  of  both, 
and  thus  failing  to  get  the  good  out  of 
either.  The  heart's  powers  are  summoned 
in  so  many  directions,  and  spread  over  so 
many  conflicting  interests,  that  there  is 
not  strength  in  any  one  spot  to  bring  fruit 
to  perfection. 

The  capability  of  every  soil  is  fixed. 
It  can  furnish  just  so  much  food  for  the 
life  growing  from  it.  If  all  that  life  be  of 
good  seed,  and  the  soil  be  properly  pre- 


SS  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

pared,  an  abundant  harvest  will  be  pro- 
duced. Every  weed  or  thorn  requires 
food  for  its  growth,  and  takes  away  just 
that  much  of  nourishment  from  the  orood 
grain.  Every  life  is  capable,  with  proper 
preparation,  of  bringing  forth  an  abun- 
dant harvest  of  good  and  holy  fruits.  But 
if  bad  seed  gets  in  and  mingles  its  growth 
with  that  which  is  good,  all  the  good  and 
true  will  be  weakened,  and  much  care  is 
needed  that  it  be  not  entirely  destroyed. 
Many  a  man  struggles  through  all  his 
adult  life  to  get  rid  of  thorns  whose  seed 
was  sown  in  his  childhood.  It  is  not 
enough  simply  to  prevent  evil  seeds  fall 
ing  within  your  own  or  your  child's  life. 
The  field  that  is  carefully  fenced  and  un- 
ceasingly guarded  will  yet  grow  full  of  the 
rankest  weeds  and  thorns,  unless  thor- 
oughly cultivated  and  sown  with  good 
seed.  If  eood  seed  is  not  sown  with  care- 
ful,  continued  cultivation  in  every  young 
heart,  evil  will  soon  be  seen  there  in  vig- 
orous growth.  The  fate  of  the  seed  de- 
pends upon  the  condition  of  the  soil.      If 


"some  fell  among  thorns."       89 

properly  prepared,  all  evil  seeds  and  roots 
removed,  and  only  good  seed  allowed  to 
grow,  an  abundant  harvest  of  fullest  value 
will  be  gathered. 

The  Master's  interpretation  of  this 
verse  is  :  ''He  also  that  received  seed 
among  the  thorns,  is  he  that  heareth  the 
word ;  afid  the  care  of  this  world  and  the 
deceitfulness  of  riches  choke  the  word,  and 
he  become th  tmfrtiitfitiy 

St.  Luke  says,  8:  14:  ''  And  that  which 
fell  among  thorns  are  they,  zuhich,  zvhen 
they  have  heard,  go  forth,  and  are  choked 
with  cares  afid pleasures  of  this  life,  and 
bring  no  frtiit  to  perfection^ 

''Are  chokedr  As  if  smothered  by  the 
deadly  gases  that  deepen  sleep  and  stop 
the  life.  Gradually  these  evil  weeds  crowd 
out  the  good  seed,  robbing  it  of  air  and 
light.  Evil  never  succeeds  in  conquering 
life  by  a  sudden  assault,  but  always  grad- 
ually, and  usually  without  being  noticed. 
First  dulling  the  senses,  then  smothering 
the  life. 

The  cares  and  riches  and  pleasures  of 


90  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

this  life,  in  contrast  with  care  for  heavenly 
things ;  striving  for  worldly  success  as 
contrasted  with  striving  for  eternal  life. 
The  cares  that  threaten,  and  those  that 
flatter ;  the  poverty  that  oppresses,  and 
the  riches  that  unduly  elate.  The  two 
extremes  are  touched  in  order  to  coverall 
the  wide  interval  between  them. 

This  bringing  of  the  seed  of  truth  to  a 
perfect  harvest  is  everyone's  business,  and 
the  rich  are  no  more  exempt  from  its 
duties  and  dangers  than  the  poor.  The 
poor  man's  toil  and  fear  of  days  when 
work  cannot  be  found  ;  the  struegle  against 
poverty,  or  the  appearance  of  need  ;  the 
wife's  unremitting  household  cares,  and 
anxious  fears  for  children  growing  daily 
into  greater  dangers  ;  the  unrelaxing,  bur- 
densome effort  to  give  the  appearance  of 
greater  wealth,  are  as  dangerously  deceit- 
ful as  the  rich  man's  care  and  anxiety. 
Yet  the  hard  pressure  of  poverty  is  not 
more  dangerous  to  spiritual  life  than  the 
flattery  of  heartless  parasites,  or  the  false 
trust  the  rich  man  is  ever  tempted  to  put 


''SOME    FELL    AMONG    THORNS."  9 1 

In  the  power  of  his  wealth,  or  the  luxuries 
and  pleasures  which  riches  too  often  pour 
In  upon  the  soul  to  enfeeble  and  destroy 
It.  These  and  other  cares  of  this  life 
weaken  and  choke  the  growth  of  the 
Chrlst-llfe  In  many  a  fertile  heart.  They 
exhaust  the  heart's  best  affections  and 
overshadow  the  good  seed  with  a  rank, 
poisonous  growth.  They  are  robbers,  for 
there  are  robbers  everywhere  on  earth, 
and  the  bad  will  steal  from  the  good,  and 
might  will  trample  down  right  wherever 
opportunity  Is  found. 

The  commonest  tramp  of  an  evil  care, 
or  passion,  or  pleasure,  Is  often  permitted 
to  oret  Into  the  most  secret  chambers  of 
our  lives  to  steal  away  our  most  sacred 
treasures,  and  murder  our  most  holy  affec- 
tions. And  how  easily  and  continually  do 
we  allow  all  manner  of  trifling  annoyances 
and  anxieties  to  commit  petty  larceny  on 
our  christian  graces.  The  commonest 
household  cares  are  sometimes  allowed  so 
to  engross  us  that  the  good  seed  Is  crowded 
out  of  our  lives.      Every  species  of  thorn- 


92  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

roots,  all  forms  of  inordinate  love  of 
things  good  in  themselves,  every  wrong 
use  of  even  right  things,  every  variety  of 
intemperance,,  all  are  ready  with  open 
hand  to  choke  the  life  out  of  the  eood 
seed  in  our  hearts. 

All  these  things,  cares,  riches  and  pleas- 
ures, are  entirely  innocent  in  themselves, 
but  they  become  enemies  of  all  true  life 
when  they  take  the  place  of  better  things. 
We  all  have  ''  cares  of  this  life,"  and  it 
would  be  a  sad  thing  for  our  best  life  if  we 
were  without  them  ;  but  is  there  no  danger 
of  having  our  life  so  absorbed  in  these  cares 
that  we  have  no  room  for  anything  better  ? 
When  your  work  is  greater  than  yourself, 
you  are  doomed.  "What  great  things  he 
has  accomplished  ! "  Wonders  of  achieve- 
ment!  But  what  of  himself  ?  Ishiswhole 
life  expressed  in  these  works  ?  They  will 
soon  die.  Has  any  man  a  right  so  to 
absorb  himself  In  the  cares  of  this  life  as 
to  have  no  time  for  discharging  his  special 
obligations  to  God  ? 


<< 


SOME    FELL    AMONG    THORNS."  93 


i( 


DECEITFULNESS    OF    RICHES. 


n 


Wealth  wields  in  all  human  society  an 
enormous  power  for  good  or  evil.  Under 
the  control  of  a  lowly  Christian  heart, 
riches  may  be  a  blessing  of  rarest  quality  ; 
but  under  the  guidance  of  selfish  ambition, 
they  are  sure  to  prove  a  curse  even  to  their 
possessor.  In  Itself  wealth  Is  a  blessing 
to  be  received  with  deep  thankfulness,  for 
In  Its  proper  use  God  Is  glorified  and  the 
world  made  better ;  the  deceltfulness  of 
riches  is  a  curse  to  rich  and  poor  alike. 
The  poor  man  may  be  as  miserly  with 
his  penny  as  the  rich  man  with  his  dol- 
lar. Avarice  may  be  the  thorn-root  in  the 
poor  as  In  the  rich,  and  it  will  bring  forth 
as  evil  a  harvest  In  the  one  as  In  the  other. 
Riches  promise  much  of  comfort,  ease 
and  power ;  but  these  do  not  come  with- 
out an  accompaniment  of  larger  responsi- 
bilities and  greater  dangers,  and  very  fre 
quently  the  promise  Is  altogether  deceptive. 
How  often  the  appearances  deceive  one  as 
to  the  reality  !     The  rich  fool  in  the  para- 


94  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

ble  rejoiced  in  the  accumulation  of  goods 
for  many  years,  his  wealth  was  the  whole 
of  his  life,  its  acquisition  and  its  care 
absorbed  him  ;  but  the  command  of  Jeho- 
vah, "this  night  they  require  of  thee  thy 
soul,"  showed  how  deceptive  his  wealth 
had  been.  The  getting  of  wealth  often 
becomes  a  moral  disease,  corrupting  infi- 
nitely more  valuable  things  in  the  life. 
With  all  their  power  to  bless,  riches  are  as 
likely  to  curse. 

"They  that  are  minded  to  be  rich  fall 
into  a  temptation  and  a  snare  and  many 
foolish  and  hurtful  lusts,  such  as  drown 
men  in  destruction  and  perdition."  Their 
minds  absorbed  in  getting  money,  they 
lose  sight  of  higher  values,  and  often 
altogether  lose  the  ability  to  secure  any- 
thing but  earthly  values.  Instead  of  ease 
and  quietness,  how  often  wealth  breeds 
avarice  and  unholy  ambitions  working  by 
unholy  methods.  The  excessive  haste  to 
be  rich  leads  to  methods  in  business  which 
rapidly  destroy  permanent  moral  wealth  in 
order  to  increase  temporary  material  riches. 


a 


SOME    FELL    AMONG    THORNS."         95 


Riches  are  thorns  when  they  rob  us  of 
simplicity.  Many  a  man,  becoming  sud^ 
denly  rich,  has  lost  his  greatest  charm  of 
character,  and  won  only  the  hollow  flattery 
of  those  who  secretly  smile  at  the  assump- 
tion of  the  man  they  pretend  to  respect. 
Riches  are  ever  a  temptation  to  prodigal- 
ity, luxury,  and  fuller  service  of  mammon. 
Drawn  out  of  the  sight  of  the  woes  and 
needs  of  others,  there  is  continual  danger 
of  a  rapid  development  of  gross  selfish- 
ness, and  a  loss  of  sympathy  with  the  poor 
and  the  weak.  Many  have  inherited 
great  possessions,  only  to  be  cursed  with 
poverty  of  heart. 

Yet  no  one  is  more  deserving  of  honor 
than  the  rich  man  who  has  kept  himself 
unspotted  from  the  stains  of  undue  haste 
and  doubtful  methods  in  acquiring,  and 
from  pride  and  selfishness  In  possessing. 
He  is  worthy  of  all  respect  who  can  receive 
unharmed  the  false  homage  and  vile  flat- 
tery so  generally  accorded  to  money. 
One  of  the  humblest  Christians  I  have 
ever   known    was  a  man  accounted  rich. 


96  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

His  memory  is  blessed.  Those  who  knew 
him  best  remember  and  love  him  for  his 
goodness,  not  his  wealth.  The  world  is 
full  of  examples  where  wealth  has  proved 
a  blessed  minister  to  the  christian  life. 
Thus  while  riches  are  often  thorns  lacer- 
ating human  hearts,  they  may  be  good 
seed,  producing  a  hundred  fold  in  the 
heart  of  him  who  possesses,  and  in  the 
lives  of  those  whom  he  blesses. 

But  not  only  are  those  who  become  rich 
in  danger  of  losing  their  simplicity,  but 
there  is  even  greater  danger  among  those 
who  remain  poor.  How  often  the  sight 
of  wealth  breeds  envy,  jealousy,  and  pain- 
ful discontent.  All  these  are  thorns,  and 
of  the  most  dangerous  kind.  To  the  rich 
and  to  the  poor,  riches  are  dangerous 
chiefly  in  their  deceitfulness,  promising  so 
much  more  than  they  can  give.  We  give 
up  simplicity  because  they  promise  greater 
comfort  in  luxury,  and  greater  power  in 
display.  And  how  frequently  our  hearts 
are  deceived  by  the  promise  that  as  soon 
as  we  are  rich  we  will  do  great  good  with 


SOME    FELL    AMONG    THORNS.  97 

our  money,  and  thus  are  tempted  to  such 
absorbino-  haste  to  be  rich  that  we  lose  the 
very  capabihty  to  fulfill  the  promise.  Gen- 
erous giving  as  we  are  receiving  is  the 
only  sure  way  of  giving  with  God's  bless- 
ing; it  may  be  the  only  way  to  avoid  dying 
"  wickedly  rich." 

Riches  are  thorns  when  they  steal  our 
love  from  Christ.  In  days  when  we  had 
but  little,  our  heart's  affections  poured  in 
concentrated  stream  to  Christ.  For  Him 
we  lived.  In  His  presence  we  thought, 
and  loved,  and  worked.  Riches  came  and 
gave  us  other  thoughts  and  aims.  We 
felt  the  possession  of  a  new  power,  and 
with  this  Increase  of  Influence,  our  pride 
grew.  We  seldom  stopped  to  think  how 
temporary  that  power  was.  The  love  of 
self  began  to  crowd  out  the  -dove  of 
Christ.  That  which  lifted  us  heavenward 
gave  place  gradually  to  that  which  absorbed 

us  in  thincrs  that  soon  must  die.    Deceived 
<_> 

by  this  new  power,  we  no  longer  felt  the 
need  of  divine  power.  Cheated  by  the 
glitter  of  this  new  Idol,  we  lost  our  devo- 


98  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

tlon  to  God.  The  sensuous  choked  out 
the  spiritual,  until  the  heart's  fertility  was 
all  exhausted  to  support  a  growth  of  weeds 
that  shall  at  last  prevent  any  of  the  truth 
coming  to  perfection. 

Riches  are  thorns  when  they  lead  to 
pride.  Counting  our  money  as  part  of 
ourselves,  we  receive  the  respect  paid  to 
our  dollars  as  if  it  were  reverence  paid  to 
our  character.  A  true  man  will  receive 
respect  and  honor,  whether  he  be  rich  or 
poor.  A  true  man  will  render  respect  to 
nobleness  of  character  wherever  he  find 
it,  whether  amid  riches  or  poverty.  It  is 
not  wealth  that  wins  for  you  the  compan- 
ionship and  confidence  of  honest  men. 
The  man  you  may  call  friend  is  the 
one  who  admires  and  honors  your  truth- 
fulness, 5^our  uprightness,  your  christian 
strength  of  character.  Lose  your  wealth, 
and  he  will  still  respect  and  help  you,  if 
you  still  prove  yourself  a  man.  Yet  how 
many  are  proud  less  of  what  they  are  than 
of  what  thev  have. 

The  eager  rush  for  wealth  would  lead 


SOME    FELL    AMONG    THORNS.  99 

one  to  suppose  that  it  constituted  the  very 
hiorhest  aim  of  life.  With  a  vast  number 
everything  is  sacrificed  for  money.  The 
best  years  of  Hfe  are  given  to  its  acquisi- 
tion. Character  is  too  often  put  in  jeop- 
ardy by  doubtful  ventures.  Opportunity 
of  self-culture  in  what  is  highest  and  best 
is  neglected  for  closer  pursuit  of  riches.  By 
the  eagerness  of  older  gold-seekers  youth 
is  tempted  to  turn  aside  from  truth  and 
the  slower  methods  of  honest  accumula- 
tion, to  whatever  will  most  quickly  fill  the 
coffers.  Wealth  may  be  honestly  gath- 
ered and  righteously  enjoyed,  and  the 
truest  Christian  may  reap  largely  of  this 
world's  harvest,  and  by  every  acquisition 
illustrate  pure  christian  principle  ;  but  he 
must  be  ever  mindful  of  the  command 
that  while  he  is  **  diligent  in  business," 
he  must  also  be  ''  fervent  in  spirit,"  with 
Godly  service. 

''Pleasures  of  this  life^  Here  all  are 
alike,  rich  and  poor,  learned  and  ignorant, 
for  these  are  the  common  weeds.  They 
ruin  multitudes  where  riches  ruin  scores. 


lOO  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

Do  you  remember  that  young  man  so 
active  in  things  good  and  holy,  now  so 
useless  to  his  Master  ?  You  know  the 
cause  of  his  failure.  He  received  the 
word,  and  it  grew  rapidly  for  a  time,  prom- 
ising a  large  harvest.  But  his  Christianity 
stood  in  the  way  of  his  pleasures,  so  he 
crowded  out  the  good  seed  with  a  growth 
of  evil  weeds.  Sinful  pleasures  kill  more 
souls,  and  mar  the  beauty  of  more  chris- 
tian lives,  than  all  other  thorns  combined. 

Sometimes  people  are  foolish  enough 
to  attempt  to  stifle  sorrow  by  the  ''pleas- 
ures of  this  life,"  forgetting  that  at  the 
same  time  they  may  be  stifling  a  nobler 
life.  How  much  better  to  purify  sorrow 
with  fervent  trust  in  God,  making  our 
very  affliction  "  work  out  for  us  a  far  more 
exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory." 

There  is  none  too  much  pleasure  in  this 
life,  but  there  is  a  higher  use  of  life  than 
pleasure-seeking,  a  use  that  has  peace  and 
pleasure  in  its  very  nature.  Yet  how 
many  men  and  women  come  gradually  to 
know  no  higher  end  of  life  than  ''to  enjoy 


"some  fell  among  thorns."     ioi 

themselves,"  meaning  to  enjoy  everything 
but  themselves.  Do  they  never  look  up 
from  their  self-indulgence  with  a  wish  for 
something  richer  and  nobler?  Can  they 
be  content  to  live  so  valueless  a  life  ?  All 
true  pleasures  have  their  proper  place  in 
the  christian  life,  but  out  of  their  own 
place  they  are  in  the  way  of  better  things. 
With  the  mere  pleasure-seeker,  inclination 
controls  duty,  hence  such  a  man  never 
knows  the  highest  pleasure  of  christian 
labor — duty  performed  for  the  honor  of 
Christ  and  the  good  of  other  souls. 

*'LUST    OF    OTHER    THINGS." 

Consuming  love  for  any  other  thing 
will  have  the  same  effect  upon  the  good 
seed  that  the  "cares  of  the  world"  and 
the  "  deceitfulness  of  riches"  have.  It 
will  not  permit  the  fruit  to  come  to  perfec- 
tion. Such  unhallowed  love  is  the  root 
of  envy  and  jealousy.  It  hears  with  sor- 
row of  another's  prosperity  and  success, 
and  never  wishes  good  to  another  without 
"3^  proviso,  or  a  protest  of  the  heart. 

10 


I02  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

Political  ambition,  as  too  generally 
exhibited,  has  a  place  under  this  head. 
Politics  may  be,  and  ought  to  be,  honor- 
able. The  politician  whose  aim  is  ever 
to  lift  his  country  to  its  highest  possible 
life,  to  seek  out  the  needs  and  possibilities 
of  man's  nature  and  interpret  them  in 
laws  for  his  help,  deserves  high  honor.  In 
such  labor  he  is  a  true  minister  of  God. 
But  when  he  is  a  mere  seeker  of  place 
and  individual  profit,  he  is  a  thorn  of  the 
very  worst  kind.  Christianity  is  a  much 
needed  ingredient  in  our  present  politics. 

The  trouble  with  this  third  class  of 
hearers  is  not  only  in  the  preparation  of 
the  soil,  but  also  in  the  later  cultivation. 
The  weeds  not  only  exhaust  the  soil  of 
its  fertility,  but  grow^  up  and  become  a 
screen  between  the  good  seed  and  the  sun. 
What  a  false  view  of  the  Sun  of  Right- 
eousness we  often  get  by  looking  through 
the  shadows  of  our  own  weed-grown  lives! 
And  sometimes  these  evil  weeds  of  our 
hearts  grow  so  thickly  and  so  large  that 
they  entirely  exclude  from  our  lives  the 


''SOME    FELL    AMONG    THORNS.  IO3 

great  "light  of  the  world."  Their  begin- 
nings are  almost  imperceptible,  but  their 
growth  is  rapid  and  their  fruit  deadly. 
Either  we  must  destroy  the  weeds,  or  the 
weeds  will  ruin  us.  In  both  Peter  and 
Judas  there  were  many  thorn-roots;  one 
destroyed  them,  the  other  was  destroyed 
by  them. 

While  the  good  seed  is  getting  a  fair 
start,  a  wise  farmer  will  go  over  his  field 
with  care  to  destroy  all  the  weeds  and 
thorns  likely  to  hinder  the  growth  of  the 
good  grain.  So  will  a  wise  hearer  of 
the  word  watch  against  the  evil  weeds  and 
thorns  that  spring  up  in  our  lives  so  easily 
and  so  rapidly. 

As  we  approach  from  barrenness  to  the 
full  harvest,  we  notice  that  the  causes  of 
failure  eet  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  heart, 
and  are  more  and  more  subtle  in  their  char- 
acter. In  the  first  class,  the  causes  of  fail- 
ure were  entirely  outward — feet  and  birds. 
In  the  second,  both  outward  and  inward — 
sun  and  rock.  Here  the  causes  are  entire- 
ly inward — cares,  deceitfulness,  pleasures. 


I04  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

Outward    opposition    is    overcome,    but 
inward  temptation  kills  them. 

The  wi-ong  and  danger  come  from  allow- 
ing these  weeds  to  grow  in  the  heart  as  if 
they  were  of  as  good  quality  as  the  true 
seed,  as  if  mammon  were  as  good  as  God. 
The  only  proper  place  for  thorns  is  as  a 
protecting  hedge  around  the  field,  and  the 
only  proper  place  for  cares  is  on  the  bor- 
ders of  life  as  ministers  of  protection  to 
the  more  valuable  things  within. 

When  you  remove  a  thorn  or  weed,  be 
sure  to  sow  in  its  place  some  good  seed. 
If  a  large  weed  in  the  field  is  pulled  up,  it 
leaves  a  bare  spot,  but  with  loosened  soil. 
If  good  grain  be  immediately  scattered, 
a  good  growth  will  be  produced.  If  the 
spot  be  left  to  itself,  it  will  either  become 
hard,  so  that  no  seed  can  take  root,  or 
evil  seeds  floating  in  the  air  will  take  pos- 
session. Be  careful.  Christian,  how  you 
cultivate  your  heart's  soil  and  the  divine 
seed  which  the  husbandman  has  planted 
there,  lest  when  he  gathers  the  completed 
harvest  of  your  earthly  life,  it  be  for  him 


"SOME    FELL    AMONG    THORNS."        IO5 

only  a  measure  of  weeds,  a  crown  of 
thorns. 

But  who  is  free  from  thorns?  Emphat- 
ically, no  one.  But  the  deeper  question 
is,  what  is  your  attitude  towards  them  ? 
One  of  neglect,  one  of  favor,  or  one  of 
deadly  hostility?  ''  Break  up  your  fallow 
ground,  and  sow  not  among  thorns." 

The  fundamental  weakness  of  this  class 
of  hearers  is  that  they  allow  good  and 
evil  seeds  an  equal  place  in  their  lives,  and 
thus  they  are  divided  against  themselves. 
Their  whole  life  is  a  conflict.  The  two 
crops  are  struggling  for  possession  of  the 
life,  and  the  end  is  almost  certain  to  be 
the  death  of  the  good,  for  the  good 
requires  careful  cultivation,  while  the  evil 
grows  without  any  care. 


"  Keep  thy  heart  with  all  diligence,  for  out  of  it  are  the 
issues  of  life."     Frov.  4:  23. 

"  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O  God  ; 
And  renew  a  right  spirit  within  me." 

Ps.  51:  10. 

*'  Among  the  various  undertakings  of  men,  can  there  be 
mentioned  one  more  important,  can  there  be  conceived  one 
more  sublime,  than  an  intention  to  form  the  mind  anew  after 
the  Divine  Image?" 

Coleridge, 


FOURTH  CLASS  OF  HEARERS. 

''And  other  fell  on  good  ground,  and  did 
yield  frtcit  that  sprang  7tp  and  i7icr eased ; 
and  brought  forth,  some  thirty,  and  some 
sixty,  and  some  an  htmdred!' 

Frultfulness  is  the  mark  of  difference 
between  this  class  and  all  the  others.  Each 
of  the  others  bears  some  resemblance  to 
this  class,  as  error  invariably  carries  a 
front  mask  resembling  the  truth,  and  it  is 
this  surface-appearance  of  truth  that  gives 
to  every  system  of  error  its  time  of  suc- 
cess. 

Like  the  first  class  of  hearers,  this  fourth 
class  heard  ;  but  unlike  them,  and  like  the 
second  class,  they  received  the  word.  They 
heeded  it,  and  gladly  made  it  a  part 
of  their  lives.  Yet,  unlike  the  second, 
and  like  the  third,  there  was  no  rock, 
but  abundance  of  rich  soil.  Instead  of  a 
shallow  loosening  of  the  feelings,  the 
whole  nature  was  ploughed,  as  in  the  third 


I08  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

class.  Unlike  the  third  class,  however, 
the  old  roots  were  all  removed,  and  dan- 
gerous evil  seeds  floating  in  the  air  from 
neighboring  fields  of  weeds  were  care- 
fully avoided  or  destroyed.  Continually 
the  heart-field  was  examined.  Evil  weeds 
were  pulled  up  by  the  roots,  and  good 
seed  sown  in  the  loosened  spots  ;  or,  if  the 
evil  was  not  entirely  uprooted,  the  soul 
stood  in  an  attitude  of  opposition  to  every 
evil  thing,  while  always  favoring  the  good. 
In  every  case  of  failure,  the  fault  lay  not 
with  the  sower  or  the  seed,  not  with  the 
sun  or  the  rain,  but  with  the  soil.  There  is 
an  advance  throughout  the  parable,  which 
culminates  with  this  class  of  fruit-bearers. 
The  members  of  the  first  class  hear,  but 
do  not  receive  the  truth  into  their  lives. 
Those  of  the  second  class  hear  and  gladly 
cover  the  new  seed  with  the  shallow  sur- 
face covering  of  their  emotions,  but  there 
Is  no  change  of  character;  the  heart  is 
only  stirred,  not  changed,  hence  they 
quickly  die.  Those  of  the  third  class 
hear,  cover  the  seed  deeply,  have  no  rocks 


"some  fell  into  good  ground."   109 

In  the  way,  and  really  begin  a  new  life, 
but  they  allow  so  many  other  roots  and 
seeds  to  grow  with  the  pure  seed  that 
they  destroy  its  roots  with  thirst,  and  its 
fruits  with  thorns  and  evil  shadows.  In 
this  fourth  class,  the  word  is  heard,  received 
into  the  life's  best  soil,  and  bears  full  fruit. 
Hard  paths  are  ploughed  up,  rocks  are 
crushed,  and  evil  seeds  and  roots  of  thorns 
are  killed  and  thrown  away.  The  new 
life  permeates  with  regenerating  power 
the  entire  inner  nature,  while  its  fruits 
make  beautiful  and  valuable  the  whole 
life  of  thought  and  deed.  The  life  of 
such  a  hearer  is  not  his  old  life,  but  the 
life  of  Christ  growing  in  him,  and  causing 
him  to  oTow  into  the  likeness  of  his 
Lord. 

In  the  wayside  hearer  there  was  no  life. 
In  the  rocky-hearted  hearer  the  seed  was 
only  scratched  into  the  surface  and  had 
but  a  temporary  life.  In  the  thorny  hearer 
the  truth  rooted  deeply  and  grew  almost 
to  harvest  time,  but  the  thorns  and  weeds 
prevented  the  fruit  ripening.    In  this  class 


no  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

the  seed  falls,  the  roots  tap  every  spring 
of  the  heart,  its  tendrils  feel  their  way 
through  every  affection,  and  its  foliage 
and  fruit  may  be  seen  in  holy  thoughts, 
in  words  of  love,  in  deeds  of  righteous- 
ness. 

Perhaps  the  most  serious  difference 
between  the  third  and  fourth  classes  is 
that  in  the  fourth  the  life  is  united,  while 
in  the  third  the  life  is  trying  to  serve  both 
God  and  mammon,  trying  to  raise  full 
crops  of  both  grain  and  thorns.  In  the 
one,  all  the  resources  of  the  life  are  con- 
centrated to  reach  one  aim.  No  division 
is  allowed.  **  But  one  thine  I  do,  forget- 
ting  those  things  which  are  behind,  and 
stretching  forward  (eagerly)  to  the  things 
which  are  before,  I  press  on  toward  the 
goal  unto  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of 
God  in  Christ  Jesus."  In  the  other  class 
the  ''  house  is  divided  against  itself." 
The  good  seed  springs  up  and  grows 
rapidly  in  one  set  of  conditions,  while 
in  another  the  good  is  hindered,  and  the 
evil  grows  with  great  rapidity.     So  a  man 


''SOME  FELL  INTO  GOOD  GROUND."    Ill 

of  the  third  class  may  be  very  religious 
one  day,  surrounded  by  favoring  condi- 
tions, and  very  wicked  the  next  day 
because  surrounded  by  temptations.  His 
life  is  divided.  Climbing  to-day  and  falling 
to-morrow — making  no  advance  towards 
"  bringing  fruit  to  perfection." 

Even  In  the  fourth  class  the  full  fruit- 
bearing  is  not  seen  immediately  after  the 
reception  of  the  word.  The  seed  must 
have  a  sowing,  a  summer  growth,  and  an 
autumnal  ripeness  for  gathering. 

Let  us  stand  in  the  Autumn  by  the 
reapers  as  they  gather  up  the  harvest. 

The  hard  path  is  still  there.  The  bare 
spot  and  the  thorny  place  are  easily  found. 
See  the  Master  look  with  pity  upon  the 
barren,  hardened  path,  and  with  sorrow 
upon  the  dead  stalks  marking  the  rocky 
spot  !  With  what  grief  of  rejected  love 
does  He  search  among  the  weeds  and 
thorns  for  any  straggling  mark  of  life  !  Is 
any  gasping,  smothered  life  striving  to  get 
the  attention  of  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  ? 
'  TIs    only   a  leaf,    or   a  shriveled,   unripe 


112  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

grain.  No  fruit  brought  to  perfection. 
But  with  what  pleasure  He  looks  upon  the 
bowed  heads,  lowly  with  their  full  harvest 
of  perfect  grain.  Some  offer  Him  a  hun- 
dred fold,  no  bare  spots,  no  weeds,  no 
ripened  thorns  ;  but  a  harvest  as  full  and 
perfect  as  the  life's  soil  well  ploughed  and 
cultivated  could  produce.  Some  sixty 
fold,  no  weeds  or  thorns  are  there;  but  it 
may  be  that  before  they  were  rooted  out 
they  weakened  the  soil,  and  in  their  place 
the  grain  is  yet  green  in  harvest  time. 
Some  thirty  fold,  no  thorns  and  a  good 
harvest;  but  it  may  be  that  good  seed  was 
not  sown  while  the  ground  was  yet  loose 
after  pulling  up  the  weeds  and  thorns,  or 
the  thorns  were  removed  from  the  life  too 
late  for  the  good  seed  to  grow  to  a  har- 
vest. 

''But  that  which  was  sown  upon  good 
ground  is  he  that  hcareth  a7id  understand- 
ethy  ''But  that  on  good groimd are  they, 
which  in  an  honest  and  good  heart,  havi^ig 
heard  the  word,  keep,  and  bring  forth 
fruit  with  patience.'' 


"some  fell  into  good  c;round/'    i  13 

It  is  an  Jumest  soil.  It  Is  all  through  to 
any  depth  just  what  it  appears  to  be  on 
the  surface,  clean  and  rich.  Not  only  so, 
but  It  Is  a  crood  soil,  free  from  all  bad  roots 
and  seeds,  and  perfectly  adapted  to  receive 
the  good  seed  and  produce  a  harvest. 
The  soil  is  not  eood  In  the  sense  that  the 
harvest  Is  all  ready  for  the  granary.  The 
heart  Is  not  good  In  the  sense  that  it  is 
already  righteous,  already  holy,  already 
perfect  and  prepared  for  the  heavenly 
garner.  A  good  heart  Is  one  free  from 
all  deception.  An  honest  heart  is  a  sin- 
cere one.  Sincerity,  however,  Is  not  all 
that  Is  necessary,  Yet  how  often  we  hear 
men  say,  ''  It  makes  little  difference  what 
a  man  believes  If  he  is  only  sincere." 
Paul  of  Tarsus  was  sincere  when  he  was 
making  havoc  of  the  church;  he  after- 
wards proved  that  his  early  life  was  all 
wrong.  The  Chinaman  worshiping  Joss 
is  sincere,  yet  who  is  foolish  enough  to 
say  he  is  right?  The  traitor  may  believe 
his  treason  right,  yet  the  government  puts 

him  to  death  notwithstanding  his  slncer- 
11 


114  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

ity.  A  man  going  southward  may  sin- 
cerely believe  that  he  is  on  the  right  road 
to  a  city  that  is  really  in  the  north,  but 
will  he  ever  reach  his  destination  unless 
he  forsake  his  old  way,  and  travel  in  the 
opposite  direction  ? 

''An  honest  and  good  (noble)  heai^f'  is 
necessary.  Not  only  a  sincere  one,  but 
one  ready  and  seeking  for  the  truth.  In 
such  a  heart  the  truth  finds  recognition 
and  a  home.  The  soil  is  fully  ready  for 
it,  and  the  truth  is  seeking  just  such  a  soil. 
The  Master  does  not  say  there  are  no 
evil  roots  or  thorns  growing  there.  By 
naming  different  measures  He  implies 
that  in  part  of  the  soil  there  was  some- 
thing that  reduced  the  measure  from  a 
hundred  fold  to  sixty,  and  even  to  thirty. 
Yet  all  the  soil  was  honest  and  good. 
There  may  have  been  thorns  in  the  heart, 
but  there  was  an  honest  and  sincere  effort 
to  eradicate  them.  Every  heart,  though 
capable  of  producing  a  hundred  fold  of 
the  good  seed,  has  in  it  some  roots  of 
evil. 


"SOME  FELL  INTO  GOOD  GROUND."  II5 

The  fertile  plain  of  Babylon,  Herodotus 
tells  us,  commonly  produced  two  hundred 
fold.  Yet  there  must  have  been  even  in 
that  fertile  land  some  unfruitful  spots,  and 
here  or  there  a  weed  or  thorn. 

The  purest  lives  are  marred  by  some 
sins.  The  most  fertile  heart  has  in  it 
some  unfruitful  spots.  Not  all  the  chris- 
tian graces  exhibit  a  hundred  fold  increase 
in  any  one  life.  Yet  an  honest  and  good 
heart  is  ever  ready,  with  eager  desire  and 
strong  purpose,  to  receive  the  seed,  and 
to  give  it  every  opportunity  to  grow. 
Goodness  of  heart  consists  in  readiness  to 
receive  eood  seed  and  refuse  evil.  An 
honest  and  good  heart  always  has  a  sin- 
cere love  for  the  truth,  and  a  fear  and 
hatred  of  sin. 

We  are  commanded,  not  to  produce  a 
certain  measure  of  fruitfulness,  but  to 
bring  to  perfection  the  natural  harvest  of 
truth.  Our  work  is  definite  and  clear. 
Not  to  control  the  issues  of  life,  but,  so 
far  as  in  us  lies,  to  cleanse  and  to  keep 
clean  the  heart-fountain,  whence  they  flow. 


Il6  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

It  is  not  In  the  measure,  but  only  in  the 
kind  that  we  are  commanded  to  bring 
forth  perfection.  Three  measures  of 
quantity  are  given  in  the  parable,  yet  all 
are  called  good.  The  scale  of  quantity  is 
the  capacity  of  our  nature.  The  standard 
of  quality  is  similitude  with  God.  The 
one  is  as  variable  as  human  character. 
The  other  as  immutable  as  the  Divine 
Nature.  The  end  is  ever  the  same;  pro- 
gress towards  it  is  in  ever  varying  speed. 
The  kind  of  the  harvest  is  fixed  by  the 
nature  of  the  seed — divine  seed  must  pro- 
duce divine  harvest.  And  since  the 
quality  of  the  seed  and  the  harvest  is  fixed 
by  the  Divine  Husbandman,  it  is  there- 
fore perfect.  In  quantity,  both  are  depend- 
ent upon  the  heart-soil's  capacity  to  receive 
and  produce.  But  we  have  the  comfort 
of  the  thought  that  the  seed,  whose  very 
nature  is  to  live  and  put  forth  energy,  will 
surely  produce  its  harvest  to  the  utmost 
capacity  of  every  life  into  which  it  falls. 
''  Keep  thy  heart  with  all  diligence ;   for 


"SOME  FELL  INTO  GOOD  GROUND.       I  I  7 

out  of  it   are  the  issues  of    life," — as  the 
grain  springs  out  of  a  fertile  field. 

It  is  possible  for  a  single  hearer  of  the 
gospel  to  represent  all  these  four  classes 
in  succession,  passing  from  the  lowest  to 
the  highest  in  their  order.  But  if  he 
belong  to  this  fourth  class,  his  character 
will  not  be  a  building  without  plan,  a  wing 
added  here,  a  shed  there,  as  the  time-need 
is;  but  the  whole  building  will  be  ''fitly 
framed  together "  and  growing  toward  a 
perfect  plan,  the  attainment  of  a  God- 
given  ideal.  This  life  and  the  life  of 
Heaven  will  not  be  simply  linked  together  ; 
but  both  will  be  built  of  the  same  mate- 
rial, woven  with  the  same  warp  and  woof. 
Both  will  be  the  ever-ripening,  ever-in- 
creasinor  harvest  from  the  one  divine  sow- 
ing.  Death  to  such  a  life  will  be  but  the 
throwing  down  of  the  scaffold  from  the 
completed  character-building,  the  removal 
of  the  debris  for  the  entrance  of  the  heav- 
enly furniture.  It  will  be  but  taking  the 
web  of  life  from  the  loom  of  earthly  strug- 
gle, and  brushing  off  the  broken  threads 


Il8  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

and  mortal  dust.  It  will  be  but  the 
transplanting  of  a  divine  plant,  from  the 
exhausted  earth-soil,  to  the  broader  field 
of  an  eternal  world.  If  the  two  soils 
have  a  close  resemblance,  there  will  be 
no  shock  in  the  transplanting.  But  if 
there  be  nothing  in  the  earthly  soil  like 
the  soil  of  Heaven,  how  can  the  life 
which  has  grown  entirely  out  of  the 
one  get  any  nourishment  from  a  soil  of 
such  opposite  character  as  the  other? 
Heavenly  graces  grow  in  earthly  soil,  but 
all  things  earthly  die  in  every  attempt  to 
carry  them  into  Heaven. 

This  character  seed  produces  no  selfish 
harvest.  The  bloom  and  the  fragrance 
and  the  ever-ripening  fruit  cannot  be  lim- 
ited to  self.  Others  will  enter  within  the 
blessing.  ''  For  we  are  laborers  together 
with  God  ;  ye  are  God's  husbandry  ;  God's 
building."  And  every  laborer  with  God 
is  moved  by  the  spirit  of  Him  who  came 
"not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minis- 
ter." Holy  is  the  fragrance  of  some  of 
these  earnest,  laborious  lives,  and  many 


.      "  SOME  FELL  INTO  GOOD  GROUND."     I  1 9 

are  the  golden  grains  of  blessing  that  fall 
from  them  into  our  weaker  and  less  fruit- 
ful hearts.  They  are  *'  God's  building," 
in  whose  shade  we  rest.  "  God's  husband- 
ry," where  we  gather  fruit  for  refreshment 
in  our  weakness  and  our  need.  And  their 
number  is  increasing.  The  husbandman 
is  ever  improving  his  estate,  ploughing 
up  trodden  paths,  crushing  hard  rocks, 
rootine  out  weeds  and  thorns,  and  scatter- 
ing  the  perfect  seed  of  His  eternal  king- 
dom. Thus  that  kingdom  is  ever  enlarging. 
All  the  causes  necessary  for  its  complete 
establishment  and  success  are  at  work. 
The  seed  is  more  and  more  widely  sown 
as  the  years  go  by.  Richer  and  more 
abundant  fruits  are  being  produced  by  the 
increasing  care  of  heart-culture.  Men  are 
gradually  perceiving  that  Christ-likeness 
is  the  only  true  ideal  of  life,  and  that 
grand  ideal  is  more  and  more  prominently 
cominof  into  contrast  with  lower  aims,  and 
thus  dwarfing  them  still  more.  The 
omnipotent  and  all-wise  God  is  on  the 
throne,  and  His  eternal  purpose  is  to  per- 


I20  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

feet  all  things  in  Christ,  and  through  Him 
to  establish  the  kingdom  of  heaven  as  the 
universal  and  everlasting  kingdom. 

The  Christian  need  have  no  hesitation 
about  scattering  the  seed,  for  the  word  of 
God  has  gone  forth  that  it  shall  not  return 
unto  him  void.  ''Sow  beside  all  waters," 
is  the  urorent  command  of  the  Lord  of  the 
harvest,  and  implicit  obedience  is  only 
faithfulness  to  duty.  Christian,  your  own 
life  depends,  in  a  very  large  degree,  upon 
your  faithfulness  in  sowing  seed  for  growth 
in  other  lives.  And  yet  while  you  sow, 
remember  the  influence  of  your  own  life 
in  winning  for  the  seed  a  good  reception. 
Sow  as  the  Master  sowed,  with  longing 
love  and  ceaseless  prayer. 

Remember  that  your  life  is  more  the 
exposition  of  your  heart  than  of  your 
head.  You  may  think  the  right  and  live 
the  wrong.  You  may  think  the  truth, 
and  understand  its  deepest  statements, 
and  yet  live  in  profoundest  error  and  evil. 
But  what  your  heart  loves  profoundly, 
supremely,     will,     sooner     or    later,    be 


"SOME  FELL  INTO  GOOD  GROUND."  121 

expressed  in  your  life,  and  the  world 
believes  when  the  life  speaks.  Conver- 
sion is  not  change  of  habit,  but  change  of 
the  very  principle  of  life.  And  change  of 
principle  is  not  change  of  opinion,  but  of 
loves  and  motives  that  come  from  the 
heart,  not  the  head. 

And  as  ye  go  forth  to  sow,  remember 
the  words  of  the  Master,  *'  Lo,  I  am  with 
you  alway,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world." 
Be  not  disheartened  with  the  failures  in 
the  three  classes,  for  here  and  there  a 
good  and  honest  heart  will  receive  the 
word  and  multiply  your  sowing  sixty  or  a 
hundred  fold. 


"  Keep  thy  heart  with  all  diligence,  for  out  of  it  are  the 
issues  of  life."     Prov.  4:  23. 

"  In  order  to  learn,  we  must  attend;  in  order  to  profit  by 
what  we  have  learnt,  we  must  think — that  is,  reflect.  He 
only  thinks  who  reflects  "  "  It  is  worthy  of  special  obser- 
vation, that  the  Scriptures  are  distinguished  from  all  other 
writings  pretending  to  inspiration,  by  the  strong  and  frequent 
recommendations  to  knowledge,  and  a  spirit  of  inquiry. 
Without  reflection,  it  is  evident  that  neither  the  one  can  be 
acquired  nor  the  other  exercised." 

Coleridge. 


**  Take  heed  zuhat  ye  hear.''  (Mark 
4:  24.^  "  Take  heed  how  ye  hearT  (Luke 
8:  18.) 

This  Is  a  very  Important  admonition, 
yet  we  pay  very  little  attention  to  It. 
How  many  of  us  are  -watchful  to  hear 
only  that  which  will  help  us  to  a  nobler 
life?  *'  What  ye  hearT  Words  of  wis- 
dom and  words  of  sinful  folly  are  ever 
competing  for  our  attention,  trying  to 
reach  the  mind,  not  only  through  the  ear, 
but  through  the  eye  from  printed  page 
and  picture.  In  a  thousand  forms  of 
appeal  trying  to  get  our  attention,  and 
influence  our  life. 

What  a  motley  group  of  petitioners 
they  are  that  plead  for  a  hearing!  Some 
coming  laden  with  gold  and  all  manner  of 
wholesome  spices,  royal  gifts  to  enrich  us 
with  things  that  are  good  and  pure  ;  others 
bringing  deadly  poisons  with  w^hlch  to 
steal  away  our  senses  while  they  rob  us  of* 


124  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

the  true  wealth  and  beauty  of  our  lives. 
Some  come  to  teach  us  a  higher  harmony 
of  life,  to  attune  us  to  full  accord  with 
God's  most  holy  will ;  others  would  woo 
us  to  sin  by  strains  that  can  at  last  leave 
us  only  with  discordant  sorrow  and 
remorse. 

Many  a  soul  has  received  its  first  stain 
in  some  heedless  hearing,  when  every 
door  of  approach  to  the  mind  should  have 
been  carefully  guarded, and  every  word  that 
approached  the  ear,  and  every  page  that 
came  before  the  eye,  compelled  to  pass  a 
challenging  scrutiny  as  to  their  value  and 
their  purpose.  Many  a  child  is  stained  and 
weakened  for  life  by  the  careless  permis- 
sion of  parents  and  teachers.  They  do 
not  wish  it,  but  they  do  not  guard  against  it. 

Heedlessness  as  to  what  we  hear  is  our 
first  danger,  but  the  admonition  concern- 
ing it  is  not  more  important  than  the  sec- 
ond, '*  Take  heed  how  ye  hear."  We  are 
not  only  heedless  as  to  what  we  hear, 
but  we  are  careless  how  we  hear  what 
'  is    good.      Many    a    follower    of    Christ, 


''TAKE    HEED    HOW    YE    HEAR."        1 25 

who  is  weak  to-day,  might  soon  grow 
strong  by  careful  attention  to  this  com- 
mand, and  all  of  us  would  find  it  whole- 
some food  for  faith  and  peace. 

The  parable  indicates  at  least  three  con- 
ditions of  profitable  hearing  of  the  word 
of  the  kingdom. 

First, — A  tte7ition. 

The    reason    why   the    wayside   hearer 

received    no  benefit   from  the   truth  was 

because  he  did  not  understand  it.     And 

he  did  not  understand  it  because,  when  he 

heard  the  word,  he  did  not  attend  to  it, 

did  not  study  it,  did  not  concentrate  the 

powers  of  his  mind  upon  it  to  know  its 

full  meaning.     Inattention  was  the  cause 

of  death  to  all  the  truth  that  had  fallen 

upon    his    heart.       "  Take    heed  how  ye 

hear,'  is  an  all-important  injunction,   for 

careless  hearing,  cynical  hearing,  attention 

to  the  form  instead  of  the  truth,  receiving 

the  husk  instead  of  the  seed,  is  the  secret 

of  a  vast  deal  of  the  church's  weakness. 

Attention  is  more  than  a  mere  hearing  of 

words  ;  it  is  attending  to  them  in  order 
12 


126  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

^  to  know  their  full  meaning,  their  purpose 
in  relation  to  self,  and  their  fullest  value 
to  the  life. 

**  Having  heard,  keep,  and  bring  forth 
fruit  with  patience!'  ''Keep/''  A  stu- 
dent hearing  a  valuable  truth  says,  ''  I 
must  keep  that."  How  does  he  do  it  ?  By 
concentrating  his  attention  upon  it  until 
it  becomes  a  part  of  himself.  He  looks 
at  it  on  every  side  to  see  all  its  phases. 
He  does  not  simply  think  how  valuable 
or  how  beautiful  it  is,  but  absorbs  it  into 
his  very  life. 

But  more  than  attention  is  necessary  to 
profitable  hearing.  The  second  class  of 
hearers  gave  full  attention  to  the  ''  word," 
and  received  it  into  willing  hearts ;  but  it 
brought  forth  no  fruit  in  the  harvest 
because  there  was  no  true  preparation  of 
the  heart  for  hearing  the  gospel ;  it  was  a 
mere  surface  reception. 

Therefore,  second,  ^r^/^ra/^*^;^  is  neces- 
sary. 

The  second  class  died  because  the  prep- 
aration was  not  thorough.     A  hearer  may 


"TAKE    HEED    HOW    YE    HEAR."       I27 

pay  close  attention  to  the  truth,  fully 
assenting  to  it  in  his  mind,  and  gladly 
receiving  it  in  his  heart ;  but  if  there  is 
not  a  complete  breaking  up  of  the  old 
rock  of  sin,  the  new  life — which  requires 
for  its  full  growth  all  of  a  man's  nature — 
will  die  before  the  summer  of  his  life  is 
over.  Not  only  must  the  ploughing  be 
deep  and  thorough,  but  the  old  roots  of 
sin  must  be  pulled  up  and  thrown  away 
from  the  life.  Sorrow  for  sin  must  grow 
into  a  hatred  of  sin  and  a  righteous  fear  of 
it.  The  true  loves  of  the  heart  must  be 
purified  and  strengthened  by  companion- 
ship with  divine  love,  while  unholy  affec- 
tions must  be  cut  off  from  all  congenial 
companionship,  and  fought  against  until 
dead  or  completely  in  subjection  to  a  will 
that  is  allied  only  with  pure  affections. 

But  something  more  is  necessary  than 
attention  and  preparation.  The  third 
class  of  hearers  both  gave  attention  and 
received  the  word  into  soil  prepared  for 
its  growth,  but  there  was  no  fruit  brought 
to  perfection. 


128  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

Third, — Cultivation  is  necessary. 

An  honest  and  good  hearer  of  the 
word  is  in  earnest.  With  him,  hearing 
is  an  important  matter.  Not  to  beguile 
an  hour,  or  fulfill  a  duty,  but  to  enlarge 
and  enrich  his  life.  It  is  a  part  of  life's 
supremest  question,  out-ranking  in  impor- 
tance every  other  interest,  whether  of  busi- 
ness, of  family,  or  of  reputation.  To  him, 
everything  else  is  secondary  to  his  perma- 
nent, eternal  life.  Hence  he  not  only  lis- 
tens earnestly,  honestly  and  patiently  ;  but 
is  a  *'  sincere  doer  of  the  word."  To  him, 
religion  is  not  merely  opinion,  or  theory, 
or  knowledge ;  it  is  life  eternal,  and  there- 
fore he  cannot  rest  content  with  merely 
ploughing  and  sowing,  but  must  cultivate 
with  all  skill  and  care  that  the  harvest 
may  be  abundant  and  of  the  very  best 
quality. 

Whatever  care  may  be  taken  in  the 
preparation  of  the  soil  and  in  the  sowing, 
all  the  weeds  and  thorn-roots  cannot  be 
entirely  removed  before  the  seed  begins 
to   grow,  and   with  the  good  growth  the 


"TAKE    HEED    HOW    YE    HEAR."        1 29 

evil  that  is  left  in  the  soil  will  surely 
spring  up.  If  the  husbandman  is  watch- 
ful and  industrious,  these  evil  roots  may 
be  removed  before  doing  much  harm  ;  but 
while  life  lasts  there  is  danger.  Old  sins 
which  you  thought  were  entirely  eradi- 
cated long  ago,  may  spring  up  again  to 
choke  your  better  life.  Therefore  the 
Master  bids  all  to  "watch  and  pray" 
against  every  evil  thing.  There  is 
especial  value  in  this  third  injunction,  for 
whatever  we  love  becomes  a  theme  of  our 
thoughts,  enters  into  the  formation  of  our 
ideal  of  life,  and  modifies  all  our  plans. 
Every  object  of  our  love  draws  us  towards 
its  own  likeness  in  proportion  to  the 
strength  of  the  affection.  The  only  way 
to  avoid  becoming  like  what  we  love  is  to 
sacrifice  the  affection.  Christ  is  Jehovah's 
ideal  for  all  our  race.  We  reach  the 
highest  possible  attainment  in  life  when 
we  arrive  at  the  full  stature  of  Christ.  If 
we  love  Him  supremely,  love  Him  for  His 
purity,  His  divine  greatness  of  character, 
love  Him  as  the  ideal  for  our  own  life,  we 


130  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

shall  grow  like  Him.  Our  present  life  is  the 
soil.  "The  word  of  the  kingdom  "  is  the 
seed.  Eternal  perfection,  likeness  to 
Christ,  is  the  ripened  harvest  of  our  life. 
It  is  worth  all  it  costs  to  prepare  the  soil 
thoroughly,  and  cultivate  it  with  watchful 
industry,  in  order  that  so  divine  a  seed 
may  produce  a  full  harvest. 

Take  four  boys  sitting  together  at 
school  and  watch  their  careers.  One  is 
stupid  ;  he  hears  with  indifference.  Truth 
makes  no  impression  on  him.  He  is  a 
mere  wayside  hearer. 

The  second  boy  is  bright,  quick,  prob- 
ably the  smart  boy  of  the  school  and  the 
pride  of  his  home.  He  hears  and  instantly 
lays  hold  of  the  truth  taught, — his  whole 
countenance  tells  that  he  has  caught  the 
meaning.  His  recitation  is  brilliant,  but  it 
is  seed  very  near  the  surface,  no  depth. 
Anyone  who  will  tickle  the  surface  will 
get  a  quick,  bright  response ;  but  such  a 
boy  never  gets  beyond  the  reputation  or 
the  ability  of  his  school  days.  A  few 
years  out  of  school,  and  he  becomes  com- 


"TAKE    HEED    HOW    YE    HEAR.  I3I 

monplace,     disappointing      many     great 
expectations. 

The  third  boy  hears,  studies  the  matter 
in  all  its  bearings,  lays  strong  hold  of  it, 
understands  it,  and  absorbs  it  into  his  life. 
He  can  never  forget  it.  It  is  become  a 
part  of  him.  But  he  absorbs  all  other 
instruction  just  as  thoroughly.  That 
things  are  contradictory  makes  little  dif- 
ference as  to  the  place  he  gives  them  in 
his  life.  He  may  become  an  encyclopaedia 
of  information,  but  it  always  remains 
information,  never  becomes  life.  He 
stands  in  the  same  attitude  towards  one 
kind  of  knowledge  as  towards  another. 
His  distinctions  are  not  clearly  drawn. 
He  is  full  of  all  manner  of  goods,  a  ''  curi- 
osity shop  "  of  ideas  and  beliefs,  but  there 
is  a  great  scarcity  of  convictions.  Eras- 
mus was  a  very  able  scholar,  but  there 
were  too  many  weeds  in  his  heart,  and  the 
driving  Reformation  tide  pushed  him 
aside  and  left  him  stranded  alone.  Luther 
with  less  knowledge,  but  with  mighty  con- 
victions, moved  all   Europe,  and  kept  his 


132  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

place  at  the  very  front  of  the  Reformation 
till  the  end  of  his  life. 

Our  fourth  boy  will  hear  as  the  third, 
and  with  no  more  thorough  knowledge, 
but  while  he  masters  fundamental  truths, 
he  also  cultivates  his  susceptibility  to 
ev^ry  impression  of  like  truth.  He  learns 
to  recognize  the  lineaments  of  truth,  and 
accepts  only  that  information  which  can 
stand  harmonious  adjustment  with  what 
he  already  knows  to  be  true.  His  knowl- 
edge may  be  as  vast  and  varied  as  his 
friend's,  but  he  stands  in  an  altogether  dif- 
ferent relation  to  it.  He  cultivates  a  love 
for  all  that  is  true,  and  as  carefully  cultivates 
a  hatred  for  whatever  is  false.  His  con- 
victions grow  with  his  knowledge,  and  his 
attitude  is  conscientiously  uncompromis- 
ing. It  is  not  enough  that  we  hear  the 
truth  and  "keep  it,"  but  we  must  keep  it 
clean  from  all  association  with  evil. 

The  whole  duty  of  hearing  may  be 
summed  up  in  these  two  commands, 
'*  Take  heed  z£/ 7^(2/ ye  hear,"  and,  ''Take 
heed  how  ye  hear."     Hear  the  truth,  and 


TAKE  HEED  HOW  YE  HEAR.    1 33 

take  heed  how  ye  hear  it.  Avoid  all  else 
than  truth.  Hear  not  falsehood,  hear  not 
folly,  hear  not  evil.  Hear  the  truth,  "the 
word  of  the  kingdom,"  at  all  hazard,  but 
take  heed  how  ye  hear  even  the  truth. 
Hear  it  with  attention,  with  due  prepara- 
tion of  heart,  and  with  continued  cultiva- 
tion, for  this  is  the  hearing  by  which  faith 
comes,  "and  by  grace  are  ye  saved 
through  faith." 


"And  that  which  thou  sowest,  thou  sowest  not  to  that 
body  that  shall  be,  but  bare  grain  it  may  chance  of  wheat, 
or  of  some  other  grain: 

But  God  giveth  it  a  body  as  it  hath  pleased  Him,  and  to 
every  seed  His  own  body." — I  Cor.  15:  37,  38. 

Ah  !  when  shall  all  men's  good 

Be  each  man's  rule,  and  universal  peace 

Lie  like  a  shaft  of  light  across  the  land, 

And  like  a  lane  of  beams  athwart  the  sea, 

Through  all  the  circle  of  the  golden  year? 
****** 

"As  if  the  seedsman,  rapt 

Upon  the  teeming  harvest,  should  not  dip 

His  hand  into  the  bag  :  but  well  I  know 

That  unto  him  who  works,  and  feels  he  works, 

This  same  grand  year  is  ever  at  the  doors 

—  Tennyson. 

"  We  have  attempted  to  produce  facts  and  evidence  which 
should  make  it  probable,  that  by  far  the  greatest  factor  in 
the  moral  and  humane  progress  of  mankind,  is  the  influence 
of  the  person  and  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  argument 
is  logical  ;  and  whoever  overthrows  it,  cannot  do  so  by 
vague  declamation,  but  only  by  presenting  a  sufficient  cause, 
other  than  Christianity,  which  shall  account  for  these  facts 
and  changes." — "  Gesta  Christi.'" 


PARABLE  OF  GROWTH. 

''And  He  said.  So  is  the  kingdo^n  of 
God,  as  if  a  man  should  cast  seed  iiito  the 
ground  ; 

And  should  sleep,  and  rise  night  and 
day,  and  the  seed  should  spring  and  grow 
up,  he  knoweth  not  how. 

For  the  earth  bringeth  forth  fruit  of 
herself;  first  the  blade,  theri  the  ear  ; 
after  that,  the  fill  corn  in  the  ear. 

But  when  the  fruit  is  brought  forth, 
immediately  He  putteth  i7i  the  sickle, 
beca^ise  the  harvest  is  come'' — (Mark  4  : 
26-29.) 

This  parable,  so  full  of  seed  for  the 
Christian  life,  so  rich  in  its  hints  of  the 
nature  of  spiritual  growth,  and  so  helpful 
in  its  prophecy  of  the  final  harvest,  is 
an  appropriate  theme  for  a  Spring-time 
study. 

The  Parable  of  the  Sower  taught  us 
how  the  good  seed  was  scattered  by  the 


136  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

Sower,  and  how  It  was  received  by  human 
hearts.  This  parable  teaches  the  nature 
of  the  seed,  the  character  of  Its  growth, 
and  the  certainty  of  the  harvest.  In  both 
parables,  the  **  field  is  the  world,"  and  the 
seed  is  ''the  word  of  the  kingdom."  In 
the  former,  the  ''harvest  Is  the  end  of  the 
world;"  In  the  latter,  the  harvest  is  when 
"  the  fruit  is  brought  forth  (or  offers 
Itself)." 

The  parable  of  sowing  taught  us  that 
while  the  good  seed  was  to  be  scattered 
freely  everywhere,  whatever  the  quality 
of  the  soil.  In  many  lives  it  would  bring 
forth  no  ripened  harvest.  In  this  parable 
it  Is  assumed  that  good  seed  cast  into 
good  ground  will  grow  to  Its  proper  har- 
vest, while  the  main  purpose  of  the  para- 
ble Is  to  Illustrate  the  inherent  vitality  and 
productiveness  of  the  seed,  and  the  pro- 
gressive character  of  Its  growth  to  perfec- 
tion. 

For  our  analysis  we  cannot  do  better 
than  to  follow  the  order  of  thought  given 
in  the  parable. 


PATIENCE    AND    HOPE.  I  37 

''As  if  a  7nan  should  cast  seed  iJito  I  he 
ground!' 

There  is  a  suo^o^estlon  here  worth  care- 
ful  attention,  but  as  it  is  not  necessary  to 
an  exposition  of  the  parable,  and  to  avoid 
repetition,  it  will  be  considered  in  our 
study  of  the  law  of  sowing  and  reaping. 

''And  should  sleep  and  rise  night  and 
day!' 

Seed-time  and  harvest  are  the  two 
prominent  seasons  in  a  farmer's  life.  All 
things  else  in  his  work  are  secondary  to 
the  sowing  and  the  reaping,  hence  in  the 
Master's  parable  they  are  left  in  the  back- 
ground. The  soil  is  to  be  carefully  pre- 
pared, the  evil  weeds  thrown  out,  the  poi- 
sonous roots  destroyed,  and  good  seed 
cast  into  the  ground.  The  less  important 
things  are  necessary,  and  therefore  the 
sower  does  not  sit  down  in  idleness  after 
the  sowing,  but  does  whatever  is  necessary 
to  prepare  for  the  coming  harvest.  So  far 
as  the  growth  of  the  seed  is  concerned,  he 
can  do  nothing  but  wait.  He  knows  ''  not 
how"  it  grows,  but  rests  in  the  certainty 


18 


138  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

that  by  a  natural  law,  not  under  his  con- 
trol, the  seed  will  grow  to  the  harvest. 

This  is  not  a  doctrine  that  permits  indo- 
lence, but  a  lesson  of  patience  and  hope. 
When  a  man  has  done  his  wisest  work 
with  all  thoroughness  and  skill,  he  has 
dealt  only  with  the  co7iditions  of  growth. 
He  cannot  give  to  the  seed  any  additional 
power  to  ''spring  up  and  grow."  His 
work  is  altog^ether  with  the  outward  con- 
ditions,  not  at  all  with  the  inward  life. 
All  he  can  do  is  to  take  the  seed  which 
has  life  in  itself,  and  put  it  in  the  ground 
which  has  the  fertility  to  support  that  life 
in  its  growth,  then  patiently  and  hopefully 
to  wait  for  the  harvest.  He  may  know 
very  little  of  the  laws  of  growth,  but  he  is 
very  sure  of  the  fact  of  growth  ;  and  hence 
his  patience  comes  not  from  ignorance  of 
the  manner,  but  from  assurance  of  the 
fact. 

How  slow  we  are  to  learn  this  lesson  of 
patience  that  is  taught  with  so  great  sub- 
limity in  every  work  of  God,  and  with  so 
great  emphasis  in  all  His  word.      No  one 


PATIENCE    AND    HOPE.  1 39 

can  read  the  story  of  that  long  period 
when  Jehovah  was  drawing  the  present 
subhme  harmony  of  the  universe  out  of 
its  early  confusion  and  darkness,  without 
wondering  at  the  infinite  patience  of  the 
Creator.  ,  He  planted  the  seeds  of  the 
future  harvest  of  beauty  and  order,  and 
then  let  them  grow  according  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  life  which  He  had  put  within  them. 
The  growth  of  continents,  of  trees,  and  of 
animal  life,  and  the  slow  development  of 
human  history,  tell  the  same  story  of  the 
patience  of  our  God. 

The  Bible  teaches  even  more  plainly 
the  unhasting  patience  of  Jehovah  in 
working  out  his  mighty  designs.  The  lives 
of  His  ancient  prophets,  Enoch,  Noah, 
Abraham,  Moses,  were  all  illustrations  of 
His  patient  sowing  and  waiting  for  a  har- 
vest. The  whole  course  of  human  history 
is  an  illustration  of  Jehovah's  patience 
with  a  sinful,  rebellious  people,  yet  He 
never  falters  in  His  efforts  to  bring  them 
up  to  the  height  of  His  eternal  purpose 
for  their  redemption.      How  patiently  the 


140  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

Saviour  laid  the  deep,  enduring  founda- 
tions of  His  kino^dom  !  He  knew  truth's 
power  of  growth,  and,  therefore,  without 
fear  or  doubt,  waited  for  the  harvest. 
What  patience  to  go  quietly  on  through 
shame  to  death  without  once  trying  to 
hasten  the  end,  or  resist  the  cruelty ! 

The  Christian's  view  of  time  and  life 
should  come  from  his  Lord,  who  counted 
the  earthly  life  of  worth  mainly  as  a  Spring- 
time for  the  sowinof  of  "  the  word  of  the 
kingdom,"  with  all  eternity  for  the  growth. 
We  think  of  time  in  periods,  as  its  beats 
its  changes  into  our  lives,  but  there  are 
no  such  divisions  of  time  with  God.  He 
who  was  before  time  began,  and  still  will 
be  when  time  is  ended,  has  no  need  to 
count  its  years  or  note  its  changing  his- 
tory. The  end,  the  beginning,  and  all  the 
history  are  present  to  His  consciousness; 
hence  He  never  unwisely  hurries,  or  indo- 
lently lags;  but  always  moves  in  patience 
from  the  first  cause  in  Himself  through  all 
the  infinite  variety  of  growth  and  wide- 
branching  effects  to  His  own  final  purpose. 


PATIENCE    AND    HOPE.  I4I 

Definitely,  certainly,  persistently,  by 
the  principle  of  growth  which  He  has  put 
within  all  life,  and  the  command  He  lays 
upon  it,  Jehovah  is  guiding  our  whole 
race  to  the  final  harvest.  Yet  how  often 
He  might  say  to  us  as  he  said  to  Ephraim 
of  old,  "I  took  them  on  My  arms ;  but 
they  knew  not  that  I  healed  them." 

In  our  impatience  to  see  the  end  of 
wickedness,  we  sometimes  forget  that  the 
'*  times  and  seasons  "  are  in  God's  hand, 
and  are  tempted  even  to  lose  our  faith  in 
His  supreme  control  of  all  the  issues  of 
life.  We  cry  out,  less  in  prayer  than 
In  unbelief,  "  How  long,  O  Lord,  how 
long!"  And  sometimes  we  even  try  to 
gather  the  harvest  before  it  is  ripe,  and 
thus  in  our  '*  zeal  without  knowledo^e " 
ruin  all. 

A  few  years  before  the  civil  war,  Fred. 
Douorlass  was  addressinof  a  crowded  audi- 
ence.  He  depicted  the  fearful  condition 
of  his  race,  the  degradation  and  horrors 
of  slavery,  the  indifference  of  one  great 
political  party,  and  the  determined  oppo- 


142  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

sition  of  the  other.  The  Supreme  Court 
had  just  decided  against  the  black  man, 
and  all  the  indications  seemed  to  point 
to  a  heavier  curse  than  ever  about  to  fall 
upon  his  doomed  race.  The  picture  was 
a  fearful  one,  and  it  oppressed  the  audi- 
ence with  the  speaker's  own  feelings  of 
despair,  and  they  were  ready  with  him  to 
cry  out  for  vengeance.  In  a  moment  of 
profound  silence,  that  strange  old  woman, 
Sojourner  Truth,  rose  from  her  seat,  and 
pointing  her  bony  finger  at  the  speaker, 
asked,  *' Frederick,  is  God  dead?"  It 
was  like  a  flash  of  light  in  midnight 
gloom.  In  his  own  way  and  time,  Jeho- 
vah made  His  purpose  plain. 

The  best  we  can  do  is  to  do  our  best, 
and  then  to  ''hope  and  quietly  wait," 
leaving  the  harvest  all  to  God.  Our  dis- 
couragement grows  out  of  lack  of  faith, 
just  as  hopelessness  always  follows  the 
death  of  faith.  We  may  look  over  the 
world  and  see  only  the  very  apparent 
fruits  of  sin  in  the  church,  and  see  only  its 
parsimony  and  lack  of  fidelity  to  the  great 


PATIENCE    AND    HOPE.  1 43 

trust  for  which  it  exists ;  but  such  a  view 
is  thoroughly  deceptive.      Like  the  cynic's 
view  of  a  sincere  and  earnest  Hfe,  we  carry 
to    a  great    problem    a   little    mind,    and 
hastily  condemn   as  not  existing  a  power 
of  life  too  rich  and  deep  for  our  narrow 
souls  to  measure.     Like  the  leaven  in  the 
meal,    like    the    seed    beneath    the    soil, 
secretly  and  certainly,  the  ''mind  that  was 
in   Christ"    is    taking    possession    of    the 
intellectual  and  spiritual  life  of  our  world. 
This    influence    is    creeping    into    the 
world's   legislation,    into    social    customs, 
into    war    and    commerce,    into    heathen 
lands  and  heathen  hearts,  and  everywhere 
it  is  growing  towards  the  full  possession 
of  the  world  for  Christ.      It  is  the  quiet 
whisper  of    God  to  all  our  race,  saying, 
"  This  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it,  when   ye 
turn  to  the  right  hand  and  when  ye  turn 
to  the  left."     This  ought  to  put  to  death 
all  thought  of  our  own  importance,  and 
make  us  feel  a  deep  humility  in  the  pres- 
ence  of    truth  with  its    endless    life    and 
mighty  work.     Christ  sowed  and   Christ 


144  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

shall  reap.  For  there  are  two  great  seasons 
In  the  life  of  His  kingdom,  when  He  was 
here  to  sow  and  when  He  comes  aeain  to 
reap.  Between  these  times  is  the  silent, 
secret  growth  of  the  kinordom  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Spirit.  Our  work  Is  to 
scatter  the  seed,  and  wait  for  the  har- 
vest. 

''And  tJie  seed  shall  spring  up  and 
grow,  he  knozveth  not  how!' 

Christ  evidently  expected  His  kingdom 
to  have  a  perfectly  natural  growth  ;  rapid 
and  wonderful,  but  strictly  according  to 
the  law  of  growth  ;  and  any  careful  study 
of  this  parable  will  disclose  a  very  close 
analogy  between  growth  In  nature  and 
growth  In  the  spiritual  kingdom. 

All  the  phenomena  of  growth  are  Indi- 
cations of  a  profound  mystery.  Every 
farmer  is  sure  that  his  seed  Is  orrowlno^ ;  he 
can  point  out  all  the  marks  of  growth  ; 
but  *'  he  knoweth  not  how  "  It  grows.  Not 
only  is  It  out  of  our  power  to  make  the 
seed  grow,  but  It  Is  out  of  our  knowledge 
how  it  grows. 


"^    PATIENCE    AND    HOPE.  I45 

From  seed  through  the  tender  ''  blade, 
then  the  ear,  then  the  full  corn  In 
the  ear,"  to  the  harvest.  The  outer 
forms  of  growth  are  plain  enough,  but 
the  Inner  spirit  of  life  is  a  profound  mys- 
tery. And  you  cannot  get  away  from  the 
mystery  ;  It  Is  everywhere.  What  Is  the  dif- 
ference between  living  tissue  and  dead  ? 
One  Is  a  marvellous  combination  of 
strength  and  beauty,  perfectly  fulfilling  its 
purpose  ;  the  other  Is  worthless,  except  as 
a  study.  Man  recognizes  the  fact  of  dif- 
ference, but  ''knoweth  not  how"  this 
difference  Is  created.  As  in  material 
growth,  so  In  spiritual,  the  cause  and 
much  of  the  process  are  mysterious. 
The  kingdom  of  spiritual  life,  like  the 
kingdom  of  physical  life,  cometh  not  with 
observation,  but  groweth  in  secret.  "  The 
wind  bloweth  where  It  llsteth  ;  thou  hearest 
the  voice  thereof,  but  knowest  not  whence 
it  cometh,  and  whither  it  goeth :  so  is 
everyone  that  Is  born  of  the  Spirit." 

The    spiritual    forces    at    work    In    the 
woi4d  do  not  challenge  attention  by  noise 


146  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH.  .   . 

or  display,  yet  they  are  growing  Into  every 
nook  and  corner  of  human  Hfe.  They  may 
not  always  completely  change  a  man's  heart 
and  mind,  but  where  In  all  the  world  Is  there 
a  spot  not  already  modified  by  the  spirit- 
ual forces  started  by  Christ  ?  The  Master 
himself  gives  us  a  perfect  Illustration  of 
this  secret  and  gradual  changing  of  the 
whole  world  which  He  Is  working  by 
His  spirit.  He  said,  ''The  kingdom  of 
heaven  Is  like  unto  leaven,  which  a  woman 
took  and  hid  In  three  measures  of  meal,  till 
It  was  all  leavened."  Leaven,  yeast.  Is 
essentially  different  from  the  meal  Into 
which  It  Is  put.  So  Is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  the  Chrlst-glven  life.  Is  a  life 
essentially  different  from  the  life  of  the 
world,  which  has  no  more  power  to  change 
Itself  than  the  meal  has  to  rise  without 
the  leaven.  It  Is  the  principle  of  new  life 
In  Christ  that  raises  the  world,  completely 
renewing  It,  as  It  Is  the  principle  of  new 
life  In  the  leaven  that  transforms  the  meal. 
In  both  cases  It  Is  the  life  that  Is  Intro- 
duced,   and   life    that    propagates    itself 


PATIENCE    AND    HOPE.  1 47 

secretly  and  gradually  until  the  "whole 
lump  "  is  changed. 

Science  has  taught  us  that  the  yeast  we 
use  is  a  mass  of  living  cells  so  minute  that 
"a  cubic  inch  of  yeast  in  the  heat  of  fer- 
mentation contains  upwards  of  eleven  hun- 
dred millions  of  them."  These  minute  cells, 
when  they  grow  to  full  size,  give  off  little 
buds.  These  buds  in  their  turn  grow 
and  produce  other  buds.  Thus,  by  a  very 
rapid  process  of  multiplication,  this  life, 
which  has  been  put  into  the  heart  of  the 
dough,  works  its  way  in  a  few  hours  to 
every  particle  of  the  whole  lump. 

*' So  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  Its 
seed  of  life  by  a  gradual,  and  in  a  large 
measure  secret,  growth,  multiplies  and 
spreads  until  it  permeates  the  whole  intel- 
lectual and  moral  life  of  our  race.  "  The 
truth "  takes  men  as  they  are  and  lifts 
them  to  a  sanctified  life  by  its  own  power 
of  erowth.  Men  are  not  transformed  in 
order  to  receive  the  truth,  but  they  receive 
it  in  order  to  be  transformed.  They  cannot 
transform  themselves  without  the  seed  of 


148  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

truth  any  more  than  the  meal  can  with- 
out the  leaven. 

Thus  the  task  set  before  the  disciples 
was  to  sow  the  seed  of  truth.  They  had 
no  power  to  control  its  growth,  but  they 
had  the  promise  which  God  has  written 
so  often  in  His  book  and  so  plainly  in  the 
seed's  own  life,  ''  It  shall  not  return  unto 
me  void  ;  but  it  shall  accomplish  that  which 
I  please,  and  it  shall  prosper  in  that  for 
which  I  sent  it." 

When  we  contrast  the  weakness  of  the 
men  chosen  for  the  work  and  the  enormous 
difficulties  to  be  overcome,  with  the  rapid 
spread  of  the  gospel  and  the  wonderful 
growth  of  the  church,  we  have  a  sublime 
illustration  of  this  parable  of  the  Master. 

Secrecy  and  spontaneity  (automate) 
are  attributes  of  all  true  growth,  whether 
in  the  physical  world  or  the  spiritual. 
Not  all  the  marks  of  growth  are  on  the 
surface  of  the  field  of  grain,  and  we  are 
in  serious  error  if  we  think  that  there  are 
no  marks  of  spiritual  growth  but  such  as 
are  plain  to  our  eyes.     Indeed,  it  is  very 


"  HE    KNOWETH    NOT    HOW.'*  1 49 

doubtful  whether  the  truest  spiritual  life 
is  ever  the  most  apparent.  Many  that 
seem  to  us  to  be  first,  may  be  last  in  the 
Master's  judgment.  "  The  word  of  the 
kingdom"  is  not  somethinor  that  is  cast 
away  from  God,  with  a  life  dependent 
upon  the  care  of  men.  It  is  a  living  spir- 
itual power  in  which  God  works  to  save 
the  immortal  souls  of  beings  created  in 
His  image.  His  spirit  is  the  life  within 
the  seed  of  truth,  and,  therefore,  it  has  an 
inherent  life  that  compels  growth  wherever 
the  seed  falls  into  soil  capable  of  support- 
ing life.  The  seed  is  not  the  life,  but  the 
means  by  which  the  life  grows  to  its  own 
harvest.  The  life  bursts  from  the  seed, 
leaving  it  to  die,  and  grows  out  of  the  form 
of  one  seed  through  the  stalk  into  a  larger 
and  more  abundant  life  in  many  seeds. 
The.  harvest  is  easily  identified  with  the 
seed  sown,  but  the  life  of  the  little  grain 
has  built  for  itself  a  laro^er  and  more  val- 
uable  place  for  itself  and  its  work.  Both 
seed  and  harvest  are  reservoirs  of  the  life 
that  has  grown  from  the  smaller  into  the 

14 


150  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

larger.  A  chemist  can  make  a  grain  of 
wheat  corresponding  exactly  in  all  its  parts 
to  the  living  grain,  but  the  manufactured 
grain  will  neither  rise  with  the  yeast  nor 
grow  in  the  earth.  Man  may  make  the 
reservoir,  but  God  only  can  give  life.  Yet 
the  life  is  what  gives  the  seed  its  whole 
value.  So  it  is  with  the  *'word  of  the 
kingdom,"  in  external  form  it  may  bear 
the  closest  resemblance  to  any  word  of 
man  ;  but  its  inherent  life  makes  it  an 
altoo^ether  different  seed  in  both  kind  and 
power.  Even  of  the  word  of  God  it  is 
said,  "  The  letter  (the  mere  form)  kill- 
eth" — leads  only  to  death — but  the  inher- 
ent spirit  is  life.  As  in  the  Old  Testament 
the  spirit  of  life  grew  by  means  of  an 
elaborate  ritual  and  the  words  of  inspired 
prophets,  so  in  the  New  Testament  the 
''  word  of  the  kingdom  "  is  the  means  by 
which  the  same  spirit  is  spreading  a  divine 
life  throughout  the  world.  "  The  word 
of  God  is  living,  and  puts  forth  energy 
(growth)." 

The  power  of  Judaism  over  the  thoughts 


"HE    KNOWETH    NOT    HOW."  I5I 

and  feelincjs  of  the  first  Christians,  the 
gigantic  power  in  Roman  heathenism,  the 
deadly  hatred  of  a  world-wide  paganism, 
the  subtle  opposition  of  all  forms  of  phi- 
losophy, the  corrupt  ideas  almost  univer- 
sally associated  with  religious  worship,  the 
actual  denial  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
by  the  head  of  the  church  in  ancient  Rome 
a  few  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  the 
weakness  and  obscurity  of  the  early  Chris- 
tians, everything  seemed  to  make  it  impos- 
sible for  the  "  kincrdom  of  heaven"  to 
take  possession  of  the  world,  or  even  to 
find  a  quiet  spot  in  which  to  keep  alive 
the  Christ-taught  faith.  But  in  spite  of 
opposition  without  and  ignorance  and  sin 
within,  the  Master's  kingdom  has  gone 
from  victory  to  victory,  persistently  grow- 
ing into  possession  of  the  life  of  the  world. 
We  know  not  how,  for  we  cannot  trace  it 
except  in  the  indications  that  are  upon 
the  surface,  "  the  blade,  the  ear,  and  the 
full  corn  in  the  ear."  We  know  that  the 
Son  of  Man  scattered  the  seed,  and  we 
saw  the  tender  blade  break  through  the 


152  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

ground  only  to  meet  the  storms  that  beat 
upon  it  with  such  relentless  fury.  Again 
and  ao^ain  we  watched  to  see  it  die  under 
the  overwhelming  opposition  of  its  ene- 
mies, and  the  selfishness  and  treachery  of 
its  friends  ;  but  still  it  grew  by  its  own 
inherent  life,  from  the  tender  blade  to  the 
ear,  and  now  the  full  corn  in  the  ear  is 
proving  its  ability  to  fulfill  the  mission 
inherent  in  its  life,  to  fill  the  whole  earth 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God. 

"  First  the  blade y  the^i  the  ear,  then  the 
full  corn  in  the  ear.'' 

These  words  teach  the  most  important 
lesson  of  the  parable.  *'  Heaven  is  not 
reached  by  a  single  bound,"  any  more 
than  a  harvest  is  ready  as  soon  as  the  sow- 
ing is  accomplished.  Growth  there  must 
be  from  seed  to  ripened  fruit.  So  with 
the  kingdom  of  Christ,  whether  in  the 
world  at  large,  or  in  the  individual  life,  it 
must  grow,  and  its  usual  growth  is  not  fit- 
ful, but  steadily  progressive.  Yet  from 
the  beginning,  when  the  disciples  asked, 
*'  wilt  Thou  at  this  time  restore  the  kinof- 


PROGRESSIVE    GROWTH.  153 

dom  ? "  even  until  now,  men  have  ever  been 
looking  for  ''  signs  and  wonders"  in  spirit- 
ual growth. 

Yet  the  Master  teaches  the  law  of  grad- 
ual progress  as  the  law  of  His  kingdom's 
growth,  and  every  christian  student  of 
human  history  is  impressed  with  the  power 
of  this  persistent  and  gradual  growth  of 
Christ's  influence.  A  few  men  of  no 
influence,  and  not  remarkable  for  either 
intellectual  or  spiritual  power,  are  com- 
missioned to  sow  the  seed  of  a  spiritual 
kingdom.  They  only  half  understand 
their  mission,  yet  are  forced  from  one 
stage  of  growth  to  another,  until  the 
ignorant  fishermen  of  Galilee  are  become 
the  saints  of  Christendom.  So  with  the 
seed  they  scattered  ;  it  has  grown  into  pos- 
session of  the  world's  best  soil,  and  still 
is  growing  with  ever  increasing  vigor. 

Like  the  leaven  and  the  seed,  this  king- 
dom of  divine  life  is  growing  quietly  with 
a  sure  and  gradual  growth  through  the 
''whole  lump"  of  human  life.  Trace  any 
of  the  noblest  thoughts  and  works  of  to- 


154  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

day  to  their  origin,  and  you  will  find  that 
the  spirit  of  Christ  has  been  with  them 
from  their  birth,  giving  them  their  life, 
and  controlling  them  in  their  growth. 

Take  out  of  our  civilization  all  that'has 
grown  directly  from  Christ's  life  and 
teachings,  and  you  would  rob  the  world 
of  its  noblest  life  and  greatest  beauty. 
All  the  inspiring  hopes  and  satisfying 
faiths  born  of  the  Spirit,  all  the  peace  of 
Christ  which  has  quieted  so  many  troub- 
led souls,  all  that  deliverance  from  the 
thraldom  of  creatures  to  the  freedom  of 
children  given  us  by  the  gospel  of  redemp- 
tion, all  would  be  swept  away  before  the 
storms  of  passion,  and  the  slavery  of 
sin. 

Because  we  do  not  see  the  power  of 
Christ  break  forth  like  a  human  power, 
but  only  know  it  as  growing  secretly  and 
gradually,  is  no  reason  for  discourage- 
ment. The  silent  force  of  gravity  is 
mightier  far  than  the  loudest  tempest ; 
and  the  persistent  life  that  to-day  is 
silently  urging  its  way  to  the  harvest  in 


SECRET    GROWTH.  155 

every  field,  has  proven  Itself  stronger  than 
all  the  storms  and  bitter  cold  of  winter. 

Not  "with  observation,"  but  in  silent, 
endless  growth.  Not  challenging  atten- 
tion by  a  storm  or  Hood,  but  in  silent 
erowth  within  the  heart,  a  well  of  living 
water  flowing  on  forever  with  spiritual 
life  and  health  in  every  drop.  As  in 
the  world  at  large,  so  in  the  individual 
soul,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like 
a  seed  springing  into  life  secretly,  and 
gradually  growing  to  the  full  harvest  Not 
many  of  us  know  how  or  when  the  first 
seed  fell  into  our  life,  or  when  the  first 
blade  appeared.  Just  as  all  the  richest 
things  in  life  ''come  to  us,"  we  know  not 

o 

how  or  why,  so  this  new  life  often  comes. 
A  blessed  gift  of  God,  but  why  to  us,  and 
how  did  it  find  a  place  to  grow?  Like  the 
love  of  God  which  passeth  knowledge,  we 
know  the  gift  is  ours  to  use  and  to  enjoy ; 
why  it  came  and  how,  we  leave  to  God. 
The  growth  of  the  ''kingdom  of 
heaven  "  in  any  one  human  life  is  as  mys- 
terious,   secret    and  progressive,   as  in    a 


156  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

world.  We  can  measure  the  growth  of 
the  kingdom  in  the  world  by  long  periods, 
but  in  the  individual  we  have  only  a  few 
years.  In  the  one  the  very  greatness  of 
the  phenomena  challenges  our  attention 
and  helps  our  understanding  of  them  ;  but 
in  an  individual  life  we  need  to  look  with 
closer  scrutiny,  for  the  time  is  short  and 
the  field  is  small. 

In  any  study  of  human  progress,  one 
very  important  thing  is  to  be  kept  in 
mind, — the  highest  powers  are  of  slowest 
growth.  There  are  so  few  possible  excep- 
tions to  this  rule  that  it  is  doubtful 
whether  it  is  ever  violated.  The  lowest 
forms  of  life  grow  quickly  to  their  end, 
and  development  becomes  slower  as 
you  rise  in  the  scale  of  being.  In  man's 
own  life  the  physical  body  reaches  its 
full  size  and  ability  in  a  very  few  years ; 
the  mind  requires  a  longer  period  for 
its  highest  development,  while  the  spir- 
itual growth  requires  more  than  all  of 
this  life,  and  we  know  not  yet  its  range 
of  growth   in  the  world   to   come.     This 


SECRET    GROWTH.  157 

may  be  because  the  physical  Hfe  is 
temporary  and  the  spiritual  life  everlast- 
ing, while  the  intellectual  life,  partaking  of 
the  natures  of  both  physical  and  spiritual 
life,  is  above  the  one  and  below  the  other. 
Or  it  may  be  that  the  longer  time  is 
needed  for  the  higher  quality  and  value 
of  the  life  lived  and  the  work  performed. 
It  takes  but  a  moment  to  prepare  a  pane 
of  common  window-glass,  but  months  to 
complete  a  lense  for  the  telescope.  It 
needs  but  a  little  time  to  train  the  ear  to 
the  simpler  musical  sounds,  but  years  of 
careful  attention  to  enjoy  the  deeper  and 
richer  harmonies.  It  is  easy  work  to 
gather  a  great  array  of  facts,  but  a  greater 
thine  and  much  more  difficult  to  go  down 
nto  the  depths  of  their  meanings,  and  find 
their  deepest  principles.  It  is  a  compar- 
atively easy  thing  to  make  an  open  con- 
fession of  faith  in  Christ;  but  it  requires 
years  of  spiritual  growth  to  be  able  to  find 
the  deep,  unchanging  principle  of  the 
Christ's  life  and  make  it  the  controlling 
power  in  one's  own  life.      It  is  so  much 


1 


158  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

easier  to  follow  the  Master  in  outward 
act  than  in  inward  motive.  And  this  is 
but  saying  that  it  is  so  much  easier  to  do 
than  to  be,  and  the  command  is  not  do 
perfectly,  but  ''be  ye  perfect." 

In  the  individual  life  we  know  not  how 
or  when  the  seed  first  fell  and  began  its 
growth.  We  may  be  able  to  tell  when 
we  first  noticed  it  growing  and  felt  it  to 
be  our  own  new  life,  but  even  this  is  not 
possible  to  us  all,  so  gradual  has  been  the 
growth.  The  secrecy  of  the  germination 
and  first  growth  is  as  marked  in  a  single 
life  as  in  the  larger  field  of  the  world, 
because  it  is  an  essential  law  of  orowth 
to  spring  up  secretly,  and  press  noiselessly 
"towards  the  mark  for  the  prize"  of  its 
high  calling,  the  full  and  ripened  harvest. 
The  world  instinctively  doubts  a  loud  pro- 
fession of  faith  or  the  appearance  of  too 
rapid  growth,  and  half  expects  it  to  be 
blasted  by  some  untimely  frost,  or  early 
tempest. 

Every  true  spiritual  seed  must  bring 
forth  fruit   of   itself ;   we   cannot  put  the 


PATIENCE    AND    IIOrE.  1 59 

fruits  Upon  It,  and  every  act  of  forcing  is 
apt  to  be  an  interference  with  a  higher 
power  at  work,  and  therefore  apt  to  hin- 
der the  growth  and  delay  the  harvest. 
It  is  but  childish  continually  to  disturb 
the  seed  to  see  whether  it  is  growing. 
The  lesson  we  need  to  learn  is  taught 
us  in  the  Master's  work  with  His  first 
disciple.  What  patience  and  hopefulness  ! 
How  slow  of  growth  they  were,  and  yet 
He  was  ever  prophesying  a  great  har- 
vest from  their  sowing.  Ah,  but  He  saw 
the  future,  and  knew^  how  successful  their 
work  would  be!  Did  He  not  also  foresee 
the  sure  growth  and  abundant  fruitfulness 
of  the  truth,  and  has  he  not  taught  us 
over  and  over  again  that  the  seed  of  truth, 
''the  word  of  the  kini^dom."  once  orrowincr 
in  the  ''good  and  honest"  heart,  cannot 
die,  but  must  bring  forth  a  harvest  "after 
its  kind  ?  "  "  Be  ye  patient,  therefore,  until 
the  coming  of  the  Lord.  Behold  the  hus- 
bandman waiteth  for  the  precious  fruit  of 
the  earth,  being  patient  over  it,  until  it 
receive  the  early  and  latter  rain.      Be  ye 


l6o  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

also  patient ;  establish  your  heart ;  for  the 
presence  of  the  Lord  is  at  hand." 

The  seed  must  spring  up  and  grow  of 
itself  throuo^h  the  clods  and  stones  of  our 
roueh  natures,  with  no  more  attention 
from  us  than  is  consistent  with  the  per- 
fect freedom  of  the  spiritual  life  growing 
silently  within  us.  It  is  ours  to  remove 
the  weeds,  guard  against  all  enemies,  keep 
our  nights  cloudless  that  the  dew  may  fall, 
and  our  days  uncovered  to  the  full  shin- 
ing of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  and  then 
to  put  our  trust  in  the  new-born  endless 
life  within,  begotten  of  Him  who  *'will 
perfect  it  until  the  day  of  Jesus  Christ." 

What  a  light  of  hope  and  faith  to  shine 
in  upon  all  our  anxious  fears  and  doubts! 
We  long  and  pray  and  work,  and  yet 
feel  hopeless.  Have  we  not  forgotten 
the  growing  power  of  the  truth  ?  Judging 
by  the  external  appearances,  we  sometimes 
forget  that  the  "inner  man"  may  be 
growing  with  a  power  and  beauty  that 
only  occasionally  appear  in  the  outer  life. 

Conversion,  as  much   as   regeneration, 


PATIENCE    AND    HOPE.  l6l 

must  be  a  fact  in  every  christian  life,  but 
it  is  not  always  traceable.  Many  of  us 
cannot  tell  the  time  of  our  conversion, 
and  many  more  are  in  danger  of  a  serious 
mistake  when  they  count  some  particular 
stirring  of  their  emotions  as  the  time,  and 
fact,  of  their  conversion.  Most  of  us  can 
tell  when  we  realized  the  fact,  but  even 
this  sometimes  comes  so  gradually  as  to  , 
make  it  impossible  to  fix  upon  any  par- 
ticular hour  as  the  time  when  we  were 
turned  completely  round  toward  God. 
Yet  whether  dates  and  occasions  can  be 
traced  with  certainty  or  not,  if  the  truth 
has  germinated  and  put  forth  its  own 
growth,  a  real  change  has  begun  in  the 
life.  And  it  is  not  merely  a  change  of 
thought,  or  of  purpose,  but  a  real  change 
of  character.  It  is  a  new  life,  whose 
legitimate  harvest  is  a  perfected  character. 
It  is  not  that  completed  harvest  of  life, 
but  it  is  the  springing  up  of  the  blade  ;  the 
ear  will  follow,  and  the  full  harvest  shall 
come  according  to  God's  law  of  spiritual 
growth. 

15 


162  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

The  feeble  blade,  tested  as  it  grows, 
becomes  in  due  time  the  strong  and  fruit- 
ful harvest ;  but  the  new-born  life  is  just 
as  true  a  life  as  it  ever  can  be.  The  first 
faint  love  growing  through  patient  serv- 
ice, the  ardent  enthusiasm  becoming  hope- 
ful endurance,  the  early  gladness  deepen- 
ing to  abiding  joy,  the  buoyancy  living 
on  into  quietness  and  peace — this  is  not 
change,  but  development.  It  is  the  true 
and  natural  growth  of  the  soul.  The 
inner  principle  is  not  weaker,  nor  the 
outer  beauty  less,  but  both  are  grown  into 
truer  harmony  and  higher  fruitfulness. 
And  this  last  it  is  that  indicates  the 
approach  of  harvest,  and  proves  the  nature 
of  the  growth,  **  By  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them."  The  blade  and  the  ear  are 
as  truly  alive  as  the  ripened  grain,  but  are 
not  yet  able  to  give  life  in  reproduction. 
They  receive,  absorb,  in  order  to  ripen 
and  reproduce  their  fruits,  and  their  life  is 
the  same  as  when  at  last,  more  fully 
grown,  they  give  forth  their  fruits  to  the 
husbandman. 


PATIENCE    AND    HOPE.  1 63 

We  must  not  expect  fruit  immedi- 
ately from  the  sowing,  for  we  need  to 
remember  that  in  the  spiritual  kingdom, 
as  in  the  natural,  we  have  all  the  phe- 
nomena of  growth.  Sometimes,  instead 
of  a  long  period  of  gradual  growth,  there 
is  a  very  rapid  development,  as  if  the 
forces  of  life  were  under  some  unusual 
pressure.  The  manifestations  of  life  are 
not  alike  in  all  who  truly  live,  although 
the  laws  of  life  remain  the  same.  Some, 
as  the  tender  blade  of  grass  or  grain,  may 
not  realize  the  rich  store  of  life  within 
them  until  the  grain  is  almost  ready  for 
the  harvest.  Others,  as  the  fruit-tree 
blossoming,  immediately  challenge  atten- 
tion to  the  vigor  and  beauty  of  their  new 
life.  The  one  reaching  its  highest  beauty 
and  value  together  in  an  abundant  harvest, 
the  other  passing  through  beauty  to  the 
more   valuable   reproductive   fruitfulness. 

"  The  ear,''  between  the  blade  and  the 
harvest,  between  the  blossom  and  the  ripe 
fruit.  This  is  a  dangerous  time  to  many 
a  true  christian   soul.      He   has   lost   the 


164  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

vividness  of  his  first  spiritual  experiences, 
and  begins  to  doubt  the  fact  of  his  con- 
version, and  often  mourns  the  decadence 
of  his  spiritual  life.     There  may  be  good 
reason  for  his  anxiety,  but  we  must  not 
forget  that  a  natural  growth  leads  through 
a  period  of  green    fruit   of   bitter   taste, 
when  there  is  neither  beauty  of  blossom 
nor  ripeness   of   fruit.     The  green  grain 
may  not  be  as  beautiful  as  the  blossom, 
but  it  is  of  greater  value   because  nearer 
the  harvest.     To  pass  out  of  a  first  stage 
of  vivid  experiences  to  a  time  of  dullness, 
and  even  of  questioning ;  from  the  early 
joy  to  the  quiet,  perhaps  stubborn,  endur- 
ance of  storms  and  resistance  of  enemies ; 
may  be  only  a  hiding  within  the  sheltering 
husk  for  a  surer  growth.     The  blade  must 
grow  through  the  green  ear  to   the   full 
harvest,   and  yet  we  sometimes   distress 
our  souls  with  a  charge  of  decline  when 
we  are  really  In  higher  stage  of  growth. 

But  we  must  not  hide  from  ourselves 
the  special  dangers  of  this  stage  of  chris- 
tian life.     For  as  the  orrain,  when  crreen 


''THE    BLADE,    THEN    THE    EAR."       165 

In  the  ear,  Is  In  danger  from  unfavorable 
condition  of  weather,  and  from  all  man- 
ner of  Insects  that  would  feed  upon  and 
kill  It,  so  In  the  spiritual  growth  this  is  a 
time  of  especial  danger  from  doubt  and 
fear.  But  we  must  not  think  there  Is  no 
fruit  of  the  Spirit  In  us  because  we  do  not 
find  any  of  It  fully  ripe.  This  is  the  time 
when  the  Husbandman  is  most  patient 
with  us,  expecting  of  us  only  a  careful 
guarding  of  the  life  He  has  given  us,  while 
It  erows  to  the  harvest. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  notice  some  of 
these  conditions  which  are  within  our  con- 
trol. The  seed  Is  planted,  and  has  life 
within  Itself.  The  soil  ''spontaneously 
bringeth  forth  fruit ;"  Its  powers  of  sustain- 
ing the  seed  are  in  Its  original  endowment. 
The  rain  and  the  atmosphere,  the  sunshine 
and  the  night,  of  this  earthly  life,  will  all 
attend  the  growing  spirit  with  their  vari- 
ous ministry.  Our  work  Is  not  with  their 
production,  but  with  our  reception  of  them, 
our  attitude  towards  them.  We  are  to 
make  all  things  without  us  minister  to  the 


1 66  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

new  life  within  us,  thus  transforming  the 
temporary  into  sustenance  for  the  eternal. 
This  cannot  be  done  by  giving  all  our 
attention  to  these  external  conditions,  nor 
by  looking  only  at  our  hearts  to  watch  the 
growth,  but  far  more  by  ''looking  unto 
Him  who  is  the  author  and  finisher  of  our 
faith."  For  a  man  does  not  grow  God- 
like by  studying  only,  or  even  largely, 
what  he  is  in  himself, — this  is  to  mould 
his  ideal  and  receive  his  impulse  from 
himself;  but  by  much  patient  thought  of 
God  and  God's  ideal  for  man,  does  he 
grow. 

Richard  Baxter,  in  his  autobiography, 
expressed  this  thought  perfectly  when  he 
said  :  "  I  was  once  wont  to  meditate  most 
on  my  own  heart,  and  to  dwell  all  at  home 
and  look  little  higher.  I  was  still  poring 
either  on  my  sins  or  my  wants,  or  exam- 
ining my  sincerity  ;  but  now,  though  I  am 
greatly  convinced  of  the  need  of  heart 
acquaintance,  yet  I  see  more  of  a  higher 
work ;  that  I  should  look  oftener  upon 
Christ,  and   God,  and  heaven,  than  upon 


"WHEN    THE    FRUIT    IS    RIPE."         1 67 

my  own  heart  I  would  have  one  thought 
at  home  upon  myself  and  sins,  and  many 
thoughts  above  upon  the  high,  and  amia- 
ble,   and    beautifying    objects I    am 

more  solicitous  about  my  duty  to  God, 
and  less  solicitous  about  His  dealincrs  with 

o 

me. 

''But  when  the  fritit  is  ripe,  straight- 
way he  ptttteth  forth  the  sickle,  because 
the  harvest  is  coined 

This  is  the  last  touch  of  the  parable, 
and  it  is  full  of  power  and  beauty.  **  Is 
ripe,"  literally,  offers  itself,  delivers  itself 
up  to  the  husbandman,  as  if  pressing  for- 
ward to  the  next  stage  of  its  development. 
The  grain  is  not  merely  an  article  of  food 
to  nourish  life,  but  also  a  seed  to  repro- 
duce its  own  life  in  larger  measure.  How 
natural  that  it  should  be  ea^er  to  cro 
forward  on  its  mission.  It  has  passed 
through  all  the  stages  of  growth  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  decree  written  within  its  own 
nature,  and  now  returns  its  fruits  to  the 
husbandman  for  whatever  use  he  may 
have  for  them, 


1 68  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

It  is  not  more  natural  for  a  head  of 
wheat  fully  ripe  to  drop  its  grains  into  the 
soil  about  the  stalk,  than  it  is  for  a  ripe 
christian  spirit  to  drop  the  seeds  of  life 
into  neighboring  minds  and  hearts.  The 
harvest  is  come  whenever  the  grain  is  ripe. 
So  it  is  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  not 
waiting  for  the  end  of  the  world,  but  giv- 
ing forth  seed  as  fast  as  it  is  ripe,  until  at 
length  the  whole  character,  fully  ready, 
is  gathered  into  the  heavenly  garner. 

In  thinking  of  the  harvest  referred  to 
in  the  Parable  of  the  Sower,  the  fearful 
imagery  of  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  Rev- 
elation is  forced  upon  the  mind  ;  but  in 
this  parable,  the  continual  ripening  and 
ever-increasing  abundance  of  the  harvest 
recall  the  prophecy  of  Amos,  ''  Behold  the 
days  are  coming,  saith  the  Lord,  that  the 
ploughman  shall  overtake  the  reaper,  and 
the  treader  of  grapes  him  that  soweth 
seed."  So  vast  will  be  the  field  to  be 
cultivated,  so  rapid  the  growth  and  so 
abundant  the  harvest,  that  seed-time  and 
harvest  will  be  as  one.      How  true  this  is 


"WHEN    THE    FRUIT    IS    RIPE."  1 69 

of  the  Master's  kingdom  !  In  every  field, 
sowing  and  reaping  go  side  by  side. 
Indeed,  In  every  life  this  Is  true  ;  for  what 
Christian,  who  really  lives,  falls  to  sow 
even  while  he  Is  reaping  ?  Of  all  the 
g-ralns  that  fall  Into  his  life,  none  nourish 
him  more  than  those  he  scatters  abroad 
to  bless  other  lives. 

Every  true  harvest  delivers  Itself  will- 
ingly to  the  husbandman,  needing  no 
forcing;  but  the  unripe  grain  cannot  be 
beaten  from  its  husk,  selfishly  refusing  to 
give  Itself  forth  for  another  harvest. 
Lives  that  are  not  ripe  enough  to  deliver 
their  spiritual  fruits  spontaneously,  may 
need  cultivation,  perhaps  a  little  urging, 
In  order  to  aid  their  growth  ;  but  forcing 
Is  always  dangerous.  Yet  In  our  impa- 
tience to  enlarore  the  harvest,  we  are 
tempted  to  force  unripe  grain  into  the 
sowing,  while  the  life  Is  yet  "  in  the  ear," 
needing  all  Its  powers  for  receiving  strength 
to  grow — unnaturally  compelling  It  to 
reproduce.  A  forced  plant  Is  very  apt  to 
be  a  frail  one.      Nor  must  we  think  that 


170  PARABLE    OF    GROWTH. 

the  full  harvest  can  be  gathered  In  this 
life.  The  life  for  which  we  have  sown  is 
endless,  and  the  fruits  are  too  rich  and 
abundant  to  be  all  gathered  on  earth. 
Immortal  life  is  too  vast  to  give  forth  in 
this  temporary  world  anything  more  than 
a  few  indications  of  its  nobility  and  wealth. 
Heaven  is  heaven  to  us  because  of  what 
we  are  becoming,  not  simply  a  beautiful 
home  for  what  we  are  in  this  life.  Having 
the  power  of  im^mortal  life  within  our 
souls,  we  look  for  nothing  less  than  end- 
less growth.  Having  the  image  of  God 
born  again  within  our  spirits,  we  will  not 
lower  our  ideal  to  anything  less  than  per- 
fection in  His  likeness, — perfect  as  God  in 
kind  of  life,  and  in  degree  of  likeness  ever 
growing. 

How  can  we  become  discouraged,  with 
this  word  of  the  Master  in  our  minds  ! 

Souls  endowed  with  endless  life,  heaven 
and  likeness  to  God  as  the  goal  to  be 
reached,  and  truth  with  inherent  powers  of 
endless  growth  to  lift  the  soul  to  its  high 
destiny, — surely  while    every  mind   must 


PATIENCE    AND    HOPE.  I7I 

bow  reverently  and  humbly  before  the 
greatness  of  the  christian  life,  every  heart 
must  exult  at  the  thought  of  the  aim 
above  and  the  power  within. 

**  Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  according  to 
His  great  mercy  begat  us  again  unto  a 
living  hope  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  from  the  dead,  unto  an  inheritance 
incorruptible,  and  undefiled,  and  that 
fadeth  not  away,  reserved  in  heaven  for 
you,  who  by  the  power  of  God  are 
guarded  through  faith  unto  a  salvation 
ready  to  be  revealed  in  the  last  time  .... 
having  been  begotten  again,  not  of  cor- 
ruptible seed,  but  of  incorruptible,  through 
the  word  of  God,  which  liveth  and 
abideth." 


"  Choose  well;  your  choice  is 
Brief,  and  yet  endless." — Goethe. 

"  Others  I  doubt  not,  if  not  we, 
The  issue  of  our  toils  shall  see; 
Young  children  gather  as  their  own 
The  harvest  that  the  dead  had  sown, 
The  dead,  forgotten  and  unknown." 

— Clough. 

"  A  wonderful  thing  is  a  seed! 
The  one  thing  deathless  forever; 
The  one  thing  changeless,  utterly  true; 
Forever  old  and  forever  new, 
And  fickle  and  faithless  never. 

"  Plant  virtue  and  virtue  will  bloom; 
Plant  ill  and  ill  will  grow. 
You  can  sow  to-day;  to-morrow  will  bring 
The  blossom  that  proves  what  sort  of  thing 
Is  the  seed — the  seed  you  sow." 

"  One  base  deed,  with  prolific  power, 
Like  its  cursed  stock,  engenders  more." 

"  Blood  for  blood  and  blow  for  blow, — 
Thou  shalt  reap  as  thou  didst  sow. 
Age  to  age  with  hoary  wisdom 
Speakelh  thus  to  man," — Aeschylus. 


THE  LAW  OF  THE  HARVEST. 

''  Be  not  deceived ;  God  is  not  mocked: 
for  whatsoever  a  man  sozoeth,  that  shall 
he  also  reapT     (Galatians  6:  7. ) 

This  is  the  law  of  the  harvest.  Every- 
thine  that  hath  Hfe  carries  within  itself  the 
principle  of  its  own  existence,  that  which 
determines  the  method  by  which  it 
develops  and  the  end  for  which  it  lives. 
Whatever  may  come  from  without  to 
modify  or  change  the  life,  must  act  through 
its  principle  of  life;  and,  although  this 
modification  or  change  come  by  some 
command,  or  law,  it  must  act  in  harmony 
with  the  law  ruling  within.  Ought  we  to 
draw  so  broad  a  distinction  as  we  usually 
do  between  the  law  written  In  our  hearts 
and  the  law  given  to  us  by  revelation? 
Both  are  eiven  of  God,  have  the  same 
work  and  purpose,  and  are  mutually  cor- 
roborative. One  of  the  first  exercises  of 
an  awakened  conscience  is  to  testify  to 
the  truth  of  God's  revealed  law,  and   of 


IG 


174  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

the  awakened  heart  to  respond  In  peni- 
tence and  prayer  to  God's  infinite  love. 
This  correspondence  between  the  two 
expressions  of  God's  law  for  human  life  is 
clearly  indicated  in  this  law  of  the  harvest. 
A  field  produces  according  to  the  seed 
beneath  its  surface,  and  the  fertility  of  the 
soil.  The  same  law  holds  good  in  every 
soil,  whether  in  the  physical,  intellectual, 
or  spiritual  world.  The  whole  world  is 
busy  sowing  and  growing  for  a  future 
harvest.  In  the  physical  world,  how 
eagerly  the  germ  of  life  within  the  seed 
bursts  its  bonds  and  strives  to  reach  its 
appropriate  harvest.  All  the  various 
forms  of  vegetable  life  multiplying  them- 
selves many  fold,  a  single  seed  dying  to 
produce  its  many  successors  for  the 
autumnal  ingathering.  The  animal  world, 
by  increase  and  dispersion,  is  taking 
possession  of  every  part  of  the  earth, 
while  men  and  their  brute  servants  are 
ever  urging  the  vegetable  world  to  a 
more  vigorous  development  to  support 
the  rapidly  increasing  animal  life. 


''WHATSOEVER  A  MAN  SOWETH."       T  75 

In  the  Intellectual  and  moral  world,  how 
eagerly  men  are  sowing  for  the  future 
reaping.  Thought-germs  of  every  kind 
and  in  every  form  of  utterance  are  striv- 
ing for  growth  towards  the  harvest.  In 
lecture,  book,  sermon,  newspaper,  conver- 
sation, in  the  very  look  of  the  face  and  the 
shrug  of  the  shoulders,  men  are  busy  sow- 
ing and  cultivatinor  Parents  and  teachers 
are  diligently  scattering  seeds  for  growth 
in  soil  more  valuable  and  productive  than 
any  that  farmer  ever  ploughed,  and  out  of 
all  this  seed  the  final  harvest  of  the  child's 
life  shall  be  gathered. 

Every  human  soul  is  entrusted  with  soil, 
seed,  and  opportunity  for  the  required 
harvest.  Your  life-soil  is  fertile,  endures 
forever,  and  is  forever  your  own.  You 
cannot  sell  it.  You  cannot  rent  it.  You 
can  mortgage  it  only  to  sin,  whose  certain 
foreclosure  is  death.  The  seed  may  be 
as  immortal  as  truth  from  God,  or  deadly 
as  Satanic  error.  The  opportunity  is  all 
your  life,  with  its  wealth  of  resources,  its 
innumerable  calls  of  duty,   and   its  wide 


176  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

opportunity  for  truest  growth  and  noblest 
work. 

The  law  of  the  harvest  is  simple  and 
certain.  According  to  the  kind,  quality 
and  quantity  of  the  seed  sown,  the  fertil- 
ity of  the  soil,  and  the  amount  and  quality 
of  labor  bestowed  on  the  sowing  and  the 
cultivation,  so  shall  the  harvest  be. 

The  Apostle  starts  out  with  the  warn- 
ing, ''  Be  not  deceived ;  God  is  not 
mocked."  Do  not  deceive  yourselves  into 
thinking  that  you  are  deceiving  God.  No 
formal  service  that  is  heartless,  no  crying 
*'  Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  done  wonder- 
ful things  in  Thy  name  ?"  when  the  spirit 
is  dead,  will  deceive  Him  who  looketh 
upon  the  heart.  And  yet  is  there  not  a 
general  hope,  certainly  a  wish,  that  God 
may  count  what  little  good  we  have  done, 
as  some  sort  of  atonement  for  what  we 
are?  What  is  this  but  expecting  Him  to 
take  our  occasional  orood  deeds,  and  draw 
from  them   a  permanent  good  character. 

We  cannot  expect  Him  to  violate  His 
own  laws  of  life  in  order  to  save  us  from 


WHATSOEVER  A  MAN  SOWETH.  I  77 

the  appropriate  results  of  our  neglect  or 
wilful  disobedience.  God  does  not  have 
special  cases.  Every  germ  of  life  pro- 
duces after  its  kind,  according  to  a  per- 
fectly definite  law  of  development.  This 
law,  so  forcibly  stated  by  the  Apostle, 
contains  several  particulars. 

Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall 
he  also  reap.  As  the  seed  is  in  kind, 
so  must  the  harvest  be.  The  sower  must 
choose  his  harvest  in  his  choice  of  the 
seed.  A  man  who  sows  to  the  physical 
life  shall  reap  a  harvest  for  the  physical 
life.  One  who  sows  all  his  seed  for  the 
intellectual  life  shall  reap  the  intellectual 
harvest.  In  like  manner,  one  who  sows 
to  the  spirit  shall  reap  a  spiritual  harvest. 
You  have  the  power  to  choose  which  of 
these  you  will  sow,  but  you  have  no  right 
to  expect  that  you  may  sow  one  kind  of 
seed  and  reap  another  kind  of  harvest. 

Your  power  of  choice  lies  with  the 
seed ;  you  cannot  change  the  law  of  the 
harvest,  which  must  be  as  the  sowing. 
You   may  sow  but  one  kind  of  seed,  or 


I  78  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

mingle  all  good  seed  In  proper  propor- 
tion ;  but  whatsoever  you  sow  that  shall 
you  reap. 

All  good  is  arranged  by  the  Apostle  in 
two  classes,  temporary  good, — **  He  that 
soweth  to  the  flesh  shall  reap  corruption  ;" 
and  permanent  good, — "  He  that  soweth 
to  the  spirit  shall  reap  life  everlasting." 

Each  after  its  kind. 

The  two  classes  have  many  things  in 
common  and  many  resemblances,  but  in 
kind  they  are  as  different  as  earth  and 
heaven,  as  temporary  and  everlasting. 
Both  may  be  ours,  for  we  get  what  we 
sow  for.  A  man  may  sow  to  the  spirit, 
without  being  blessed  with  physical  com- 
fort. And  because  he  has  sown  abun- 
dantly of  the  choicest  spiritual  seed  is  no 
especial  reason  that  he  should  be  pros- 
perous in  his  physical  life.  To  have  both, 
he  must  sow  for  both. 

Christ  says,  '*  Blessed  are  they  which 
do  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness : 
for  they  shall  be  filled."  What  with  ? 
Righteousness.     Just  as  those  who  hun- 


"  WHATSOEVER  A  MAN  SOWETH.         I  79 

ger  and  thirst  after  this  world's  pros- 
perity shall  be  filled  with  that.  Each 
class  gets  what  It  seeks.  **  Honesty  Is  the 
best  policy "  for  this  life  and  that  which 
is  to  come,  but  that  is  not  saying  that  the 
honest  man  will  get  rich,  or  keep  free 
from  disease  and  sorrow.  A  man  may  be 
a  good  man  and  get  rich,  or  he  may  be 
just  as  good  and  remain  poor.  Or  a  man 
rtiay  choose  to  get  rich  and  have  all  the 
comforts  of  this  life,  without  a  thought  of 
the  everlasting  life. 

"  Abraham's  bosom,"  heaven,  was  the 
legitimate  harvest  of  the  seed  sown  by 
Lazarus ;  but  he  had  no  more  rieht  to 
expect  that  he  would  receive  the  home 
and  the  luxury  which  the  rich  man  en- 
joyed, than  the  rich  man  had  to  expect 
heaven  as  the  harvest  of  his  life.  Each 
got  what  he  sowed  for. 

A  man  cannot  sow  to  worldly  success 
only,  and  have  any  right  to  expect  a  spir- 
itual victory,  a  victory  over  death.  '*  He 
that  soweth  to  the  flesh  shall  (from  that 
sowing)  reap  corruption,"  and  corruption 


l8o  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

is  only  another  name  for  death,  the  end 
of  all  flesh.  Every  man  must  sow  for 
the  harvest  he  wants.  The  student  who 
would  become  a  learned  man  knows  that 
he  must  sow  years  of  self-denial,  and 
close,  hard  study.  He  has  no  right  to 
complain  of  his  harvest  of  ignorance  and 
inefficiency  if  he  has  never  sown  the  seeds 
from  which  a  richer  harvest  could  grow. 
You  have  no  right  to  complain  that 
although  you  are  a  devoted  Christian, 
serving  God  with  fervent  spirit,  yet  your 
neighbor,  who  cares  for  nothing  but  his 
own  success,  is  growing  rich  and  influen- 
tial, while  you  are  hardly  able  to  pay  your 
just  debts.  You  sowed  for  peace  of  mind 
and  all  the  christian  graces  here,  and  eter- 
nal life  in  the  world  to  come.  Your 
neighbor  sowed  for  worldly  success. 
You  are  both  getting  what  you  sowed  for. 
If  you  want  wealth  and  influence,  you 
must  sow  accordingly.  The  Master  said  of 
the  hypocritical  Pharisees,  whose  very 
religious  services  were  performed  for  the 
praise  of  men,  "  They  have  their  reward." 


**  WHATSOEVER  A  MAN  SOWETH."      l8l 

They  sowed   for  the  praise  of  men  and 
they  got  it. 

The  man  who  sows  for  worldly  success 
has  a  right  to  expect  worldly  success,  but 
he  has  no  right  to  expect  anything  else. 
If  the  Christian  expects  to  have  worldly 
success  because  he  is  a  Christian,  he  mis- 
interprets God's  law  of  cause  and  effect. 
What  a  man  sows,  he  shall  reap.  He 
cannot  expect  a  harvest  of  physical  com- 
fort from  a  sowing  of  spiritual  seed.  Inci- 
dentally, the  spiritual  growth  will  help  the 
growth  of  all  true  good,  even  physical 
good ;  but  the  seed  must  be  planted  for 
every  part  of  life's  harvest. 

But,  some  may  say,  there  is  a  difference 
between  the  spiritual  law  of  growth  and 
the  physical,  in  this  that  God  loves  the 
sinner,  and  nature  does  not ;  God  forgives 
sin,  and  nature  does  not.  Because  God 
is  love  shall  He  violate  laws  which  are 
altogether  good  and  pure,  laws  which  are 
the  most  perfect  expression  of  His  love, 
as  of  every  other  attribute  of  His  nature? 
His  love    is  deep  as  eternity,  mighty  as 


1 82  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

omnipotence,  broad  and  rich  as  human 
need,  and  helpful  as  the  Christ  himself ; 
but  that  love  is  shown  in  the  perfect  ful- 
fillment of  law,  not  in  the  violation  of  it. 
Christ  ''  came  not  to  destrov  the  law,  but  to 
fulfill."  And  the  divine  love  was  dis- 
played as  much  in  the  atoning  death  as  in 
the  obedient  service. 

God's  law  of  command  never  violates 
His  law  of  principle,  for  what  He  speaks 
in  revelation  is  in  strict  harmony  with  His 
utterance  in  the  inherent,  abiding  princi- 
ples of  man's  moral  nature. 

Suppose  you  have  a  young  almond  stock 
and  want  a  harvest  of  apricots,  how  will 
you  secure  the  change  of  fruit  ?  You  will 
graft  an  apricot  stem  into  the  almond 
stock,  and  the  fruit  will  be  apricots.  Thus 
you  change  the  harvest  by  changing  that 
which  produces  it.  But  then  I  read  in  this 
book  of  God  that  it  is  no  exception  to  this 
law,  or  violation  of  it,  that  God  forgives 
sin,  but  in  strictest  accordance  with  it. 
"  Ye  must  be  born  again."  The  seed  is 
changed  in  order  to  change  the  harvest. 


''WHATSOEVER  A  MAN  SOWETH."      I  83 

The  law  is  that  a  seed  can  produce  but 
one  harvest,  and  that  the  harvest  shall  be 
of  the  same  kind  as  the  sowing.  You 
may  choose  to  sow  either  to  the  flesh  or 
to  the  spirit,  but  you  must  not  expect  to 
gather  both  the  physical  and  the  spiritual 
harvest  from  one  sowing. 

Many  of  you  are  young,  and  you  often 
hear  this  exhortation,  but  has  it  no  mean- 
ing that  it  need  not  be  repeated  ?  You 
are  sowing  seed  with  a  free  hand  in  very 
productive  soil — what  shall  the  harvest  be  ? 
The  answer  is  plain — exactly  what  the  seed 
was.  Do  you  think  that  you  can  sow  any 
kind  of  seed  now%  and  then  reap  in  later 
years  any  harvest  you   may  wish  ? 

There  is  in  a  distant  state  a  man  whose 
life  is  full  of  eood  works.  He  wears  to 
the  world  a  cheerful  face,  and  helps  every 
life  he  meets.  But  there  is  a  load  on  his 
heart  that  only  the  redemption  of  his  body 
can  remove.  He  did  a  great  wrong  in  his 
youth.  After  his  conversion  he  made 
every  reparation  in  his  power,  but  it  was 
too  late  to  remove  all  the  harm,  and  the 


184  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

sorrow  of  that  memory  goes  with  him 
through  Hfe. 

Say  what  you  please  about  what  a  man 
ought  to  do,  how  he  ought  to  feel  at  peace 
when  he  has  done  everything  in  his  power 
to  repair  his  wrong,  and  by  a  penitent, 
humble  and  devoted  life  is  doing  all  he 
can  to  help  others.  The  law  of  God  and 
the  law  of  nature, — if  you  can  thus  sepa- 
rate two  methods  of  the  same  law — require 
that  every  harvest  shall  be  as  the  sowing. 
And  though  a  man  may  be  born  again,  he 
cannot  forget  the  old  life,with  its  joys  and 
its  remorse,  until  the  new  life  has  swallowed 
up  in  its  ever-increasing  abundance  all 
the  past,  and  swept  even  its  memories 
clean. 

The  sins  of  youth  are  sure  to  produce 
some  harvest.  God  forgives,  and  plants 
the  seed  of  a  new  spiritual  life,  but  He 
does  not  enable  you  to  forget.  And  one 
mark  of  this  new  life  is  its  power  to 
deepen  the  soul's  remorse  for  sin,  even 
while  it  increases  the  lonorin^  for  riorht- 
eousness.    We  have  no  right  to  expect  that 


"WHATSOEVER  A   MAN  SOWETII."       I  85 

in  later  years  we  shall  reap  the  harvest  of 
honest  speech  and  candid  mind,  when  we 
filled  our  youth  with  insincere  words  and 
uncharitable  thoughts.  Not  only  will  the 
reputatio7i  earned  in  youth  cling  to  us 
but  the  habits  of  thought  and  tone  of 
spirit  will  influence  and  modify  our 
characters  to  the  end  of  life.  The  most 
fearful  of  all  dangers  to  an  immortal  soul 
is  that  doom  which  Christ  said  had  fallen 
upon  some  who  heard  the  Parable  of  the 
Sower,  "their  heart  is  waxed  gross,"  they 
had  lost  their  capability  for  any  higher 
life.  We  forget  that  "  God  requireth  that 
which  is  past,"  because  we  forget  that 
there  is  no  past  with  God,  and  fail  to 
remember  that  nothing  dies,  and  that 
everything  produces  its  own  harvest. 
Remember  the  timely  warning  of  the 
wise  preacher  in  Ecclesiastes,  1 1 :  9  : 
"  Rejoice,  O  young  man,  in  thy  youth  ; 
and  let  thy  heart  cheer  thee  in  the  days 
of  thy  youth,  and  walk  in  the  ways  of 
thine  heart,  and  in  the  sight  of  thine  eyes  ; 
but  know   thou   that,  for  all  these  things 


17 


1 86  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

God  will  bring  thee  to  judgment."  It  is 
the  same  law  ;  as  thou  sowest  thou  shall 
reap. 

Neither  does  God  with  His  forgiveness 
send  any  new  power  to  the  body  to  escape 
the  harvest  of  the  earlier  sowing.  You 
may  have  become  a  true  child  of  God, 
but  if  your  youth  has  been  spent  in  indo- 
lence, idleness  and  dissipation,  you  will 
feel  the  loss  of  power  to  the  end  of  your 
days.  Not  only  so,  but  if  a  man  in  early 
spring-time  sows  a  crop  of  thorns,  he  will 
not  only  gather  no  good  crop,  but  he  is 
thus  far  weakened  by  loss  of  time  and 
skill  and  opportunity  when  he  would  be 
very  glad  to  sow  a  better  seed.  Many 
people  who  wish  to  "  do  good  "  after  their 
days  of  business  and  youthful  pleasure 
are  over,  find  that  they  have  lost  their 
aptitude  for  it ;  sometimes  have  lost  even 
their  capability  for  work  so  different  from 
what  has  busied  them  in  all  their  earlier 
years.  They  sowed  one  kind  of  seed,  and 
they  must  not  expect  to  reap  another 
kind  of  harvest.      The  old  Latin   proverb 


''WHATSOEVER  A  MAN  SOWETH."       tS; 

urges  that  "you  must  become  an  old  man 
when  young,  if  you  would  be  a  young  man 
when  old  ;"  suggesting  that  you  must  apply 
the  temperance  and  wisdom  of  maturity 
to  youthful  inclinations,  if  you  would  pre- 
serve the  strength  and  vigor  of  youth  to 
old  age.     As  Pope  puts  it — 

"  For  fainting  age  what  cordial  drop  remains, 
If  our  intemperate  youth  the  vessel  drains  ?  " 

Many  of  us  who  are  yet  young  would 
repudiate  our  future  selves  with  all  the 
zeal  and  loathing  of  Hazael  of  old,  should 
some  Elisha  make  that  future  plain  to  us. 

We  shall  reap  as  we  sow,  and  yet  some- 
times people  (not  thoughtful  people)  say 
that  if  one  is  only  sincere  it  matters  little 
what  a  man  believes.  Wheat  and  rye 
look  very  much  alike  to  one  who  is  not 
familiar  with  them,  but  suppose  a  farmer, 
honestly  believing  that  he  is  sowing  wheat, 
actually  scatters  rye  broadcast  over  his 
field,  will  he  get  a  crop  of  wheat  for  his 
honesty  ?  A  man  will  get  what  he  sows — 
whatever  he  may  think  he  is  sowing. 

There  is  one   fallacy  in  our  reasoning 


1 88  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

about  goodness  that  needs  to  be  noticed. 
The  goodness  which  Christ  teaches  and 
what  is  called  the  world's  goodness,  or 
moral  goodness,  are  different  In  kind.  The 
fruits  bear  a  close  resemblance.  Indeed, 
the  world's  highest  morality  is  a  harvest 
of  our  Master's  sowing.  Our  noblest 
view  of  life  and  our  highest  conception  of 
God  come  from  Christ's  life  and  teach- 
ings. Yet  there  are  men  who  deny 
Christ,  and  yet  want  to  claim  God  as  their 
Father.  They  say,  perhaps,  that  science 
has  taught  them  this  view  of  God.  Yet 
science  tells  us  very  little  about  God, 
except  that  He  exists  and  is  all-powerful. 
These  men  take  the  view  of  God  which 
Christianity  has  taught  the  world,  and 
proclaim  It  as  a  discovery  of  their  own 
skill  and  knowledge.  Christ's  own 
answer  to  all  such  is  given  In  St.  John  8  : 
42  :  '*  If  God  were  your  Father,  ye  would 
love  Me  :  for  I  came  forth  and  am  come 
from  God."  But  whatever  their  view  of 
God,  and  however  they  may  have  received 
it,  there  Is  a  difference  in  kind  between  the 


''WHATSOEVER  A   MAN  SOWETH.  1  89 

''moral  life "  and  the  spiritual,  and  the 
final  harvests  must  bear  the  same  differ- 
ence. These  men  are  entitled  to  all  the 
reward  of  a  true  morality,  with  all  it 
means  of  health  and  comfort  and  o^ood 
influence.  But  they  have  no  right  to 
expect  that  their  earthly  life,  beautiful  as 
it  is,  will  grow  to  a  harvest  in  God's  like- 
ness. They  have  sowed  the  seed  of  the 
highest  earthly  life,  and  they  shall  reap 
accordingly,  but  the  harvest  will  be  no 
higher  or  more  enduring  than  the  sowing. 
It  is  still  "  sowing  to  the  flesh,"  and  only 
he  who  sows  to  the  spirit  shall  reap  "  life 
everlasting."  The  one  is  living  by  earthly 
motives,  according  to  an  earthly  standard, 
and  must  always  measure  himself  by  the 
lives  of  men  like  himself.  The  other  is 
moved  by  heavenly  motives,  according  to 
a  divine  standard  of  life,  and  always 
measures  himself  by  the  perfect  life  of 
Christ,  God's  ideal  life  for  man.  One 
life  is  guided  by  custom,  and  controlled 
by  external  influences.  The  other  is 
guided  by  the  principle  of  a  new-born  life 


190  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

within,  and  controlled  by  a  divine  spirit 
to  whom  he  has  surrendered  his  life.  The 
'*  moral  life"  has  its  life  and  reward  this 
side  of  death,  for  the  o^rave  is  the  end  of 
its  trrowth.  It  is  a  beautiful  and  fruitful 
earthly  plant,  soon  reaching  maturity  and 
death,  but  its  seeds  reproduce  only  in  an 
earthly  soil.  The  spiritual  life  never 
reaches  maturity  on  earth,  but  requires  a 
spiritual  world  for  its  fullest  growth.  It 
aims  to  bring  forth  all  the  good  fruits  of 
the  '*  moral  life"  as.  a  legitimate  harvest 
of  its  own  life  on  earth,  but  looks  for  a  still 
higher  fruitfulness  in  an  unending  world. 
The  "moral  life"  touches  no  higher  power 
than  its  own,  supported  by  the  pressure 
from  without  of  forces  that  are  altogether 
earthly.  The  forces  that  control  such  a  life 
rarely  touch  the  mass  of  men,  and  have 
at  best  only  a  reforming  power,  and  that 
is  chiefly  negative.  These  forces  come 
nto  a  life  with  all  the  prohibitions  of  the 
aw,  but  with  none  of  the  gospel  of  a  new 
ife.  It  commands  the  life  to  put  forth 
its   own   greatest   power,  but   it  gives  no 


WHATSOEVER  A  MAN  SOWETH.         I9I 

new  power.  The  moralist  is  one  who 
tries  to  live  up  to  the  standard  of  morals 
reached  by  the  world  under  the  influence 
of  Christianity.  The  Christian  is  one  in 
whom  Christ  has  begotten  a  new  life, 
which  is  lifting  him  by  steady  growth 
towards  perfection.  One  may  be  a 
reformed  man,  but  the  other  is  a  regener- 
ated man.  One  life  is  the  fruit  of  earthly 
seed,  and  the  whole  growth  will  be  as  the 
seed,  earthly.  The  other  life  is  growing 
towards  an  eternal  harvest  from  a  divine 
seed  of  God's  own  planting.  The  one  is 
begotten  of  the  best  spirit  of  the  world, 
the  other  is  born  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Each  after  its  kind  shall  reap  a  harvest, 
but  the  two  harvests  will  be  as  different 
as  the  sowing. 

Prof.  J.  C.  Shairp,  in  his  **  Studies  in 
Poetry  and  Philosophy,"  uses  the  follow- 
ing strong  and  suggestive  language : 
"  Character,  which,  when  regarded  from  a 
merely  moral  point  of  view,  almost  inevi- 
tably becomes  a  building  up  from  our 
own  internal   resources,    takes  altocrether 


192  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

another  aspect  when  it  is  seen  that  true 
character  is  in  the  last  resort  determined 
by  the  attitude  in  which  the  spirit  stands 
to  God.  Then  it  comes  to  be  felt  that 
the  rightness  men  search  for  cannot  be 
evolved  from  within,  must  go  beyond  self, 
must  fall  back  on  a  simple  receptivity, 
receiving  the  rightness  and  the  right- 
making  power,  which  they  have  not  in 
themselves,  from  out  of  the  great  reser- 
voir of  righteousness  which  is  in  God. 
Only  on  thus  falling  back  on  God,  and 
feeling  himself  to  be,  as  of  everything 
else,  so  of  righteousness,  a  recipient,  is  a 
man  truly  rightened.  Thus  the  last  moral 
experience  and  the  first  upward  look  of 
religion  agree  in  one,  *  A  man  can  receive 
nothing  except  it  be  given  him  from 
above.'" 

Again  the  harvest  must  be  as  the  sowing 
in  qzmlity.  After  a  man  decides  what 
kind  of  grain  he  must  sow  in  order  to 
secure  the  kind  of  harvest  he  wants  to 
reap,  he  is  careful  to  select  a  good  quality 
of  that  kind  of  grain,  for  he  knows  that 


"WHATSOEVER  A  MAN  SOWETH.         I93 

the  quality  of  the  harvest  is  affected  by 
the  qiiahty  of  the  seed.  A  good  farmer, 
when  he  has  decided  to  sow  wheat,  seeks 
to  get  for  his  seed  the  best  quahty  of 
wheat  in  the  market ;  and  the  student, 
when  he  has  decided  to  study  any  partic- 
ular theme,  seeks  to  find  the  ablest  teach- 
ers and  most  helpful  books,  so  that  by  the 
best  methods  and  the  best  quality  of  seed 
he  may  be  sure  of  a  good  quality  of  har- 
vest. So  it  should  be  in  the  spiritual 
sowing.  It  is  needful  for  us  all  to  have  the 
choicest  spiritual  seed,  if  we  would  have 
the  richest  spiritual  harvest.  This  seed  is 
the  word  of  God.  The  words  of  men 
may  be  wise  and  very  helpful  ;  but  every 
Christian  knows  that  the  power  to  sanc- 
tify is  the  word  of  truth.  The  faith  that 
enables  us  to  receive  aright  the  blessings 
of  God,  '' Cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing 
by  the  word  of  God."  For  this  there  is 
no  safe  substitute.  Nor  must  the  quantity 
be  regarded  as  an  unimportant  matter,  for 
if  one  wants  to  reap  bountifully,  he  must 
sow  bountifully.      No  farmer  is  so  igno- 


194  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

rant  as  to  do  on  his  farm  what  so  many- 
Intelligent  and  cautious  people  do  in  the 
spiritual  work  of  their  lives  ;  sow  as  little 
as  possible,  and  yet  hope  to  reap  a  very 
great  abundance.  Sowing  to  the  flesh  a 
hundred  dollars  for  every  dime  they  sow 
to  the  spirit ;  sowing  a  week's  work  to  the 
flesh  for  every  hour  they  give  to  spiritual 
work ;  sowing  a  thousand  fold  for  the 
body  over  the  handful  they  scatter  for  the 
spiritual  harvest.  As  they  sow  in  kind 
and  quality  and  quantity,  so  shall  they 
reap. 

Another  particular  of  this  law  is  that  of 
increase.  You  plant  a  single  grain  and  it 
gives  you  in  return  a  score  like  itself. 
Your  harvest  is  not  according  to  the 
labor  and  money  you  expend  upon  it. 
These  alone  do  not  give  the  full  value  of 
the  product.  The  natural  fertility  of  the 
soil,  and  the  ability  of  the  seed  to  multi- 
ply itself  so  abundantly,  must  be  consid- 
ered. This  power  of  multiplication,  the 
seed  has  in  itself ;  but  there  is  another 
mode  of  increase  that  must  not  be  over- 


"WHATSOEVER  A  MAN  SOWETH."       I95 

looked,  that  by  diffiisioii  or  dispersion. 
Whether  it  be  thistle-down  floating  on  the 
air,  the  lady-slipper  exploding  to  scatter 
its  little  seed-bullets,  or  the  seeds  of  trees 
and  grass  and  grain  carried  by  the  wind, 
or  the  birds,  or  on  the  bosom  of  flowing 
waters,  far  and  wide  the  life  is  dispersed 
to  grow  and  multiply  in  new  lands. 
Everyone  recognizes  this  law  in  nature, 
every  student  knows  how  true  it  is  in  the 
intellectual  life,  and  the  word  of  God 
says,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  Parable  of 
Growth,  that  it  is  as  true  in  the  spiritual 
life.  You  cannot  keep  either  spiritual 
good  or  evil  from  increasing.  The  good 
we  do  and  the  evil  we  do  go  on  producing 
their  harvest  to  the  end,  multiplying  and 
diffusing  their  influence,  each  after  its 
kind.  One  would  think  that  no  exhortation 
could  be  needed  to  make  us  cautious  in 
our  every  word  and  deed  in  presence  of 
such  a  responsibility.  But  we  are  apt  to 
forget  the  wisest  admonition,  grown  famil- 
iar by  its  frequent  repetition,  even  as  we 
are  apt  to  overlook  the  greatest  values  in 


196         THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

things  grown  customary  by  our  constant 
use  of  them. 

"To  do  good  and  communicate,  forget 
not,  for  with  such  sacrifices  God  is  well 
pleased."  ''  Herein  is  my  Father  glori- 
fied, that  ye  bear  much  fruit."  These,  to 
one  who  seeks  to  "sow  to  the  spirit,"  are 
not  mere  commands,  but  are  the  very 
principle  of  his  life.  They  are  commands 
of  duty,  but  they  are  eagerly  accepted  as 
in  perfect  harmony  with  his  own  new-born 
spiritual  life,  and  the  grain  does  not  more 
eagerly  accept  the  sunshine  and  the  rain 
for  its  growth  to  the  harvest  than  does  the 
earnest  Christian  accept  these  commands 
and  the  opportunities  they  give  for  growth 
towards  the  final  harvest  of  his  own  full- 
grown  and  ripened  life. 

By  a  different  emphasis,  we  may  learn 
another  lesson,  which  is  also  suggested 
by  the  first  sentence  of  the  Parable  of 
Growth.  "  Whatsoever  a  man  sowetJi, 
that  shall  he  also  reap.'' 

Every  true  life  is  one  of  activity.  No 
man  drifts  to   real  success,  for  while   he 


''WHATSOEVER  A   MAN  SOWETH.  I97 

may  suddenly  and  without  effort  secure 
possession  of  great  wealth  or  high  posi- 
tion, he  has  not  that  discipline  of  self 
which  comes  with  the  labor  of  achieve- 
rhent.  In  no  department  of  life  does  one 
gather  a  good  harvest  without  a  previous 
sowing.  Hence  the  work,  the  manner  of 
its  performance,  and  the  spirit  of  the 
worker,  all  enter  into  the  life-problem  of 
every  human  soul.  And  this  is  true,  not 
only  in  the  great  affairs  of  life,  but  also  in 
every  little  thing.  For  everything, 
whether  great  or  small,  is  both  a  seed 
and  a  harvest,  the  seed  for  future  growth 
and  the  fruit  of  a  previous  sowing.  Con- 
tempt of  littles  may  be  contempt  of  the 
greatest  values,  for  we  never  know  how 
much  of  growth  may  lie  within  the  small- 
est seed.  You  cast  a  little  word  of  truth 
into  a  young  heart,  and  never  knew  that 
from  your  sowing  there  sprang  up  great 
principles  to  control  an  immortal,  life. 
Nor  did  you  see  the  many  seeds  that  have 
fallen  from  that  life  to  spring  up  and 
grow  in  other  souls  unto  endless  life. 

18 


198  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

A  divine  spirit  makes  everything  divine 
that  it  touches,  and  a  consecrated  spirit 
consecrates  every  work  it  performs, 
whether  the  world  call  it  small  or  large. 
As  Mrs.  Gaskel's  "  Ruth  "  expresses  it  : 

''  There  is  a  right  way  and  a  wrong 
way  of  setting  about  everything — and  to 
my  thinking,  the  right  way  is  to  take  a 
thing  up  heartily,  if  it  is  only  making  a 
bed.  Why,  dear,  ah  me  !  making  a  bed 
may  be  done  after  a  very  christian 
fashion,  I  take  it,  or  else  what's  to  come 
of  such  as  me  in  heaven,  who've  had  little 
enough  time  on  earth  for  clapping  our- 
selves down  on  our  knees  for  set  prayers." 

Any  man  is  great  who  does  all  his  work 
for  the  spirit  and  the  duty  in  it,  who  feels 
that  each  lowly  task  may  be  so  performed 
as  to  help  the  noblest  spiritual  growth. 
Religion  ''put  on  "  is  a  very  deadly  thing, 
like  the  famed  shirt  of  Nessus,  putting 
the  wearer  to  a  miserable  death.  But 
religion  that  springs  from  the  heart,  and 
flows  naturally  with  consecrating  power 
into  every  walk   of  life,   is  a  very   noble 


"WHATSOEVER  A  MAN  SOWETH.         1  99 

thinor  makinor  the  life  beautiful  in  all 
abiding  graces,  and  ''fruitful  in  every 
good  work."  But  such  a  life  comes  not 
by  accident.  Its  own  appropriate  sowing 
and  its  own  natural  growth  must  precede 
it.  Evil  crops  grow  without  any  care,  but 
good  seed  must  be  sown  and  carefully 
cultivated.  All  plants  and  trees  pro- 
ducing food  for  man  are  short-lived,  and 
require  constant  care  to  prevent  their 
deeeneration.  Even  the  famous  bread- 
fruit,  which  we  once  thought  did  not  come 
under  this  rule,  is  no  exception  to  the 
law  ;  for  of  the  two  varieties  of  the  bread- 
fruit-tree, the  wild  propagates  itself,  and 
is  worthless  for  food,  while  that  which 
yields  food  is  seedless,  and  requires  con- 
stant care  for  its  growth. 

In  the  spiritual  world,  the  very  labor  of 
sowing  and  cultivatinor  enters  into  the 
quality  of  the  fruit,  and  prepares  the  soul 
for  the  proper  enjoyment  and  use  of  the 
harvest.  The  great  purpose  of  the 
activity  to  which  Christ  urges  his  fol- 
lowers is  to  crowd  out  the  evil  growth  by 


200  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

the  more  abundant  sowing  and  cultivation 
of  the  good.  "Sow  beside  all  waters," 
however  weed-grown  and  stony,  for  It  Is 
thus  that  Christ  would  "  destroy  the 
works  of  the  devil."  Indeed,  the  Master 
would  teach  us  to  measure  our  life  less  by 
the  number  of  Its  years  than  by  the  spirit 
of  Its  service  and  the  abundance  of  Its 
fruits.  How  can  any  soul  accustomed 
only  to  reaping,  without  a  thought  of  sow- 
ing, ever  rightly  appreciate  the  self-denial 
and  never-resting  service  of  Christ  ? 
What  can  he  understand  of  the  joys  of 
Him  who  delighted  to  do  God's  will,  and 
of  the  heaven  that  rewards  the  faithful 
steward,  when  he  is  a  stranger  to  the 
spirit  of  devotion  to  the  work  of  minister- 
ing unto  others?  The  Saviour's  admo- 
nitions concerning  hearing  might  well  be 
applied  to  sowing  ;  take  heed  hozu  ye  sow, 
and  take  heed  wJiat  ye  sow.  Before  sowing, 
decide  what  you  will  sow,  and  that  will  be 
decided  by  what  you  want  to  reap  In  the 
harvest.  And  do  not  overlook  the  fact 
that  this  law  applies  to  every  part  of  life. 


"WHATSOEVER  A  MAN  SOWETH.         20I 

To  public  life  and  to  private.  To  the 
school  and  the  church,  to  the  store  and 
the  home,  to  politics  and  to  business. 

If  you  want  to  reap  success  in  business, 
you  must  sow  accordingly  ;  but  remember 
that  you  may  be  so  ''diligent  in  business" 
(or  In  house-keeping,  or  in  study)  as  to 
become  unable  to  ''be  fervent  in  spirit." 
Perhaps  you  say,  "  I  will  first  be  success- 
ful in  business,  and  then  with  my  wealth 
I  will  serve  the  Lord  with  all  faithfulness." 
Nay,  if  you  do  not  continue  "fervent  in 
spirit,  serving  the  Lord,"  while  you  are 
increasing  you  wealth,  you  will  never 
properly  unite  them  afterwards.  Much 
of  the  devotion  to  business  which  the 
world  applauds  is  the  very  process  that 
is  destroying  spiritual  growth.  Many  of 
our  business  men,  pressing  forward 
eagerly  for  wealth,  need  to  consider  this 
law  of  life  which  God  has  written  in  such 
unqualified  language. 

Ask  yourselves  whether,  when  you  shall 
have  secured  possession  of  wealth,  you 
will  be  richer  or  poorer  than  now  ?     You 


202  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

will  possess  much,  but  will  you  be  more 
or  less  than  now  ?  Be  watchful,  lest  you 
choke  your  spiritual  life,  God's  harvest, 
with  the  too  abundant  growth  of  your 
own  earthly  harvest !  ''  It  is  required  of 
stewards  that  they  be  found  faithful." 
Not  only  when  they  have  laid  by  all  that 
they  want  for  themselves,  but  from  the 
first  moment  of  life. 

Every  moment  this  law  is  In  full  opera- 
tion in  every  life,  yet  do  we  not  often  try 
to  make  ourselves  believe  that  Its  action 
is  not  certain,  or  at  least  that  it  is  far  off 
in  the  future  ?  We  treat  life  as  if  It  were 
a  mere  succession  of  acts  and  thouo^hts 
and  words,  when  these  are  but  the  leaves 
and  blossoms  and  partial  fruits  of  a  life 
which  is  unbroken  and  endless.  Thinking 
that  we  can  at  any  moment  cease  to  per- 
form the  acts,  we  forget  that  they  are  but 
expressions  of  a  life  steadily  growing  to  a 
harvest  from  the  sowing  of  all  the  past. 
For  all  life  is  an  unbroken  series  of  beo^In- 
nings,  as  well  as  of  harvests.  The  slight 
Inclination,  which  we  may  have  Inherited, 


<(   r, 


THAT  SHALL  HE  REAL.       203 

may  seem  to  us  a  very  small  matter,  yet 
from  it  may  grow  a  wish,  an  affection,  an 
act,  a  habit,  all  doing  their  part  in  shap- 
ing and -establishing  our  character.  How 
careless  we  are  of  the  seeds  that  fall  into 
our  lives,  and  the  lives  of  those  for  whom 
we  are  responsible!  We  pay  so  little 
heed  to  the  sowing,  but  when  too  late  to 
destroy  the  evil,  and  cultivate  the  good 
to  advantage,  we  curse  ourselves  for  our 
folly,  and  plead  for  God  to  pity  us.  We 
are  apt  to  think  of  retribution  as  some- 
thing which  belongs  exclusively  to  a  dis- 
tant future  and  another  world,  yet  every 
soul  carries  within  itself  the  prophecy  of 
its  own  judgment.  For  retribution  is 
implied  in  every  threat  of  conscience,  and 
illustrated  in  every  controversy  between 
ofood  and  evil  for  the  control  of  the  will. 
In  every  temptation,  the  will  is  solicited 
by  opposing  f-celings,  and  we  can  do  no 
more  than  to  choose  the  best  or  the  worst 
that  is  before  us.  If  we  choose  the  worst 
thing,  is  it  not  the  wickedest  thing  we  are 
able    to  do   at   that    moment  ?     It   is   no 


204  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

palliation  to  say  that  others  have  done 
worse  things  than  we  ever  have,  for  they 
did  no  more  than  the  wickedest  thing  that 
lay  within  their  reach,  and  that  we  have 
done.  We  know  that  in  every  temptation 
there  is  a  choice  between  two  things, 
and  these  two  things  are  not  of  equal 
moral  worth,  so  that  we  are  ever  choosing 
either  the  best  thing  or  the  worst.  Thus 
we  are  ever  casting  the  seed  for  a  future 
harvest,  habituating  the  will  to  obey  the 
purer  affections  in  its  decisions,  and  quick- 
eninor  these  affections  to  more  vigorous 
growth  ;  or  putting  the  will  more  and 
more  under  the  control  of  the  evil  in  us, 
and  thus  determining  our  characters  away 
from  good  and  from  God. 

We  know  that  neither  orood  nor  evil 
receives  its  full  retribution  in  this  world  ; 
every  life's  experience  is  proof  of  that. 
Conscience  punishes  the  most  spiritual 
with  the  keenest  remorse  for  sin,  while  it 
speaks  but  feebly  in  those  who  dwell  in 
crime.  But  the  law  abides  forever; 
''  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he 


**THAT    SHALL    HE    REAP.  205 

also  reap."  ''  Even  as  I  have  seen,  they 
that  plow  iniquity  and  sow  wickedness, 
reap  the  same."  (Job  4:  8.)  What  a 
fearful  meaning  this  gives  to  that  last  proc- 
lamation of  this  same  law :  **  Seal  not  up 
the  words  of  the  prophecy  of  this  book ; 
for  the  time  is  at  hand.  He  that  is 
unrighteous,  let  him  be  unrighteous  still  : 
and  he  which  is  filthy,  let  him  be  filthy 
still :  and  he  that  his  holy,  let  him  be  holy 
still.  And  behold  I  come  quickly ;  and 
my  reward  (wages)  is  with  me,  to  give 
every  man  according  as  his  work  shall  be." 
(Rev.  22:  II,  12.) 

Solemn  and  threatening  as  this  law  may 
be  in  one  direction,  it  is  full  of  comfort 
and  encouragement  in  another.  A  sower 
of  good  seed  has  only  to  look  at  the  won- 
derful orrowth  of  '*  the  word  of  the  kincr- 

o  o 

dom,"  to  see  how  certainly  this  law 
applies  to  good  as  well  as  to  evil.  It  will 
make  him  penitent  for  the  evil  he  has 
done,  but  it  should  make  him  diligent  and 
hopeful  in  every  faithful  service  of  good. 
Diligent,   to   make    the    future    sowing 


206  THE    LAW    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

both  good  and  bountiful.  Hopeful,  for 
the  harvest  shall  be  as  the  sowing,  for 
every  good  seed  carries  within  itself  the 
decree  of  its  own  certain  growth  to  the 
final  harvest,  and  is  guarded  and  nour- 
ished by  the  blessing  of  ''  the  Lord  of  the 
harvest." 

Every  seed  is  a  beginning;  if  the  seed 
be  true  and  good,  it  is  the  beginning  of 
blessings  that  cannot  die.  For  your  own 
soul,  for  your  children,  for  all  lives  that 
feel  you  influence,  have  seeds  of  blessing 
ready  in  the  abundant  fruitfulness  of  your 
own  life.  Remember  *'the  Sower,"  who 
never  came  in  contact  with  human  life 
without  leaving  some  seeds  of  comfort,  or 
warning,  or  hopefulness,  never  counting 
any  too  low  or  too  great  to  receive  the 
word  of  life.  There  is  no  better  life  for  this 
world  or  heaven  than  His,  "who  came 
not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister." 

'' Wherefore,  be  ye  steadfast,  unmova- 
ble,  always  abounding  in  the  work  of  the 
Lord,  forasmuch  as  ye  know  that  your 
labor  is  not  in  vain  in  the  Lord," 


''THAT    SHALL    HE    REAP."  207 

''  Now  He  that  ministereth  bread  for 
your  food,  multiply  your  seed  sown, 
and  increase  the  fruits  of  your  righteous- 
ness." 

"  Now  the  God  of  peace,  who  brought 
again  from  the  dead  the  Great  Shepherd 
of  the  sheep  with  the  blood  of  the  eternal 
covenant,  even  our  Lord  Jesus,  make  you 
perfect  in  every  good  thing  to  do  His 
will,  working  In  us  that  which  is  well-pleas- 
ing in  His  sight,  through  Jesus  Christ ;  to 
whom  be  the  glory  forever  and  ever. 
Amen." 


